Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,024	5	6.5132	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

had to entertain the League He sent therefore to him the Duke d'Espernon who Essayed to Convert him by reasons of interest and policy Our Henry hearkened to him but he testified that those were not motives sufficiently puissant to make him Change and sent him back with many Civilities The Hugonots were so vain as to publish and cause to be Printed the conference of this Prince with Espernon to shew that he was unshaken in his Religion and possibly likewise to engage him more strongly in it The Duke of Guise was not wanting to profit himself of it and to remonstrate to the Catholique people the stubbornness of this Prince and what they might hope if he came to the Crown with such sentiments To stop therefore his way to it he made the zealous openly renew the League and boldly bringing it into Paris where some new religious persons inspired this Ardour into peoples souls by Confessions held the first publique Assembly at the Colledge de Fortet which was called the Cradle of the League Many Burgesses many Tradesmen and likewise some Clerks of Paris entred into it They carried it to Rome and presented it to Pope Gregory the 13. for his approbation but he never would give it and continually so long as he lived disavowed it So soon as it grew a little great and strong those who had engendred it made it appear that it was not only to provide for the security of Religion for the future but that at present they might approach themselves neer to the Crown and that they not onely would have it against the King of Navarre who was to Succeed but against Henry the third who now reigned They kept in Salary certain new Divines who durst openly sustain that a Prince ought to be deposed who acquits himself not well of his duty That no power but that which is well ordered is of God otherwise when it passes due bounds it is not Authority but Usurpation and that it is as absurd to say that he ought to be King who knows not how to govern or who is deprived of understanding as to believe a blind man a fit guide or an immoveable Statue able to make living men move In the mean time the Duke of Guise was retired to his Government of Champagne feigning himself discontented but it was to make the Duke of Lorrain sign the League out of hopes he would cause his Son to Succeed to the Crown to which he pretended to have right by his Mother Daughter to Henry the Second He held to this purpose a Treaty at Joinville where he likewise found Agents from the King of Spain who signed to the Treaty and as it was reported did by Letters of Exchange supply the Duke of Guise with great sums of money At his departure thence the Duke assembled Troops on all sides his friends seized on as many places as they could not onely amongst the Hugonots but likewise amongst the Catholiques The King might easily have dissipated these Levies had he taken the field But the Queen-Mother like to self-interested Physitians who would for their profit augment the disease withheld and amused him in his Closet perswading him that if he would leave to her the management of this affair she would easily reduce the Duke to his obedience To this purpose she held a Conference with him at Vitry and so gave him time to strengthen his party and when he saw himself in an Estate to fear nothing he broke the Conference and made shew of some resolutions to come directly to Paris The King astonished prayed his mother to conclude an accommodation upon any terms which she did by the Treaty of Nemours by which she granted to the Duke and other Princes of his house the Government of several Provinces many great sums of money together with a most bloudy Edict against the Hugonots which forbad the profession of any other Religion then the Catholique under Penalty of Confiscation of Goods and Estate with Command to all Preachers and Ministers to depart the Realm within one moneth and all Hugonots of what degree or quality soever within six months or otherwise abjure their false Religion This Edict was called the Edict of Juillet which the League farther constrained the King to carry himself into the Parliament and cause it to be ratified A little after arrived news from Rome that Sixtus the fifth who succeeded Gregory the eighteenth had approved the League and had besides fulminated out terrible Bulls against the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde declaring them Hereticks Apostates Chiefs Favourers and Protectors of Hereticks and as such falling under the Censures and Pains concluded on in the Laws and Cannons depriving them and their descendants of all Lands and Dignities incapable to succeed to any Principality whatsoever especially to the Kingdome of France and not onely absolving their Subjects from all Oaths of Fidelity but absolutely forbidding them to obey them It was now that our Henry had need of all the forces both of his Courage and Vertue to sustain so rude assaults He seemed in a manner lull'd asleep by his pleasures when the noise of these great assaults awakened him he recalled all his Vertue and began to make it appear more vigorously then ever before And certainly he afterwards avowed that his enemies had highly obliged him by persecuting him in this manner for had they left him in repose that rest had possibly Entombed him in a corner of Guyenne and he not have been constrained to think of his affairs so that at the death of Henry the third he would not have been in an Estate to attempt or entertain the Crown He now did two Actions of great renown the first was his commanding Plessis Mornay a Gentleman of excellent Education and who could be reproached with nothing but being a Hugonot to answer the Manifesto of the League by an Apologie and by a Declaration which he caused to be drawn In this last piece the Chiefs of the League having spread abroad divers calumnies against his honour he with all submission besought the King his Soveraign that he would not be offended if he did pronounce saving still the respect due to his Majesty that they did falsely and maliciously lye and moreover that to spare the blood of his Nobles and shun the desolation of the poor people those infinite disorders and above all those blasphemies burnings and violations which the license of War must cause he offered to the Duke of Guise chief of the League to decide this quarrel by his person against his one to one two to two ten to ten or what number he should please with Arms generally in use by Cavaleers of honour either in the Realm of France or in such place as his Majesty should command or else in such place as the Duke of Guise himself should chuse This Declaration had a great effect o'er peoples spirit They said

lose his life then the remembrance of those good services they had rendred him and granting them easily all the points they demanded only the second In stead of which he promised them to re-establish the exercise of the Catholick Religion through all his Territories and to remit the Ecclesiasticks into the possession of their Estates and of this he caused a Declaration to be ingrossed which after all the Lords and Gentlemen of Note had signed he sent to be confirmed by that part of the Parliament which was at Tours There were many who signed it with some regret and others who absolutely refused it among whom were the Duke of Espernon and Lewis d' Hospital Vitry This last disturbed as it was said by a scruple of Conscience cast himself into Paris and gave himself for some time to the League but first of all he abandoned the Government of Dourdan which the Defunct King had given him Such were then the Maxims of persons of true honour in the Civil Wars that in quitting one party which ever it was they quitted likewise those places they held and returned them to those had conferred them The Duke d' Espernon protesting that he would never be either Spaniard or Leaguer but that his Conscience would not permit him to stay with the King demanded leave of him to retire to his Government The King after having in vain endeavoured to retain him gave him leave with many Carresses and prayses but so much was he in his heart troubled at his abandoning him that it hath been believed he conserved against him a secret resentment so long as he lived The Duke of Mayenne was not a little troubled in Paris what resolution he should take he saw that all the Parisians even those who had held of the party of the Defunct King had fully resolved to provide for the security of Religion But that however they would all have a King contrary to some of the Sixteen who imagined they might form a Republick and turn France into Cantons like to the Suisses but those were neither sufficiently powerful in Number Riches or Capacity to Conduct such a design So that the most part of his friends counselled him to take the title of King but when he went about to sound this Gulfe he found that this proposition was neither agreeable to the people nor yet to the King of Spain from whom he received and was to receive his Principal stay and means of Subsistence Hereupon two other Counsels were given him the one to accord willingly with the new King who without doubt in the conjuncture wherein things were would grant him most advantagious conditions The other that he should by Declaration publish to the Catholicks of the Royal Army that all resentments remaining Extinct by the Death of Henry the third he had no other interest then that of Religion That that point being of Divine obligation and regarding all good Christians he summoned and conjured them to joyn with him to exhort the King of Navarre to return to the Church upon which they promised to acknowledge him immediately for King but if that he refused to do it they protested to Substitute in his place another Prince of the blood This advice was the best And indeed it was proposed by Jeannin President of the Parliament of Burgongne one of the wisest and most Politick heads of his Councel and who acted in his affairs without Sleights or Stratagems but with great judgement and singular Honesty The Duke of Mayenne equally rejected both these advices and took a third to wit the causing the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was at present detained prisoner by order of our Henry to be proclaimed King still reserving to himself the quality of Lieutenant-General of the Crown He published after several Declarations one of which he sent to the Parliament the other to the Provinces and the Nobility inviting them to endeavour to deliver their King and defend their Religion At the same time the King tried by divers Negotiations and caused him to be exhorted rather to seek his advancement by his friendship then by the troubles and miseries of France But to this the Duke answered that he had engaged his Father in the Publick cause and given Oath to King Charles the tenth for so they called the old Cardinal of Bourbon who was named Charles to whom according to the sentiment of the League the Crown appertained as to the nearest Kinsman of the Defunct And in the mean time he entertained Plots and Conspiracies in the Royal Army where his emissaries from day to day debauched many persons even of those whom the King believed most assured There were many Generous enough to resist the temptations of Silver but nothing was proof against the intrigues of the Ladies of Paris who cunningly attracted the Gentlemen and the Officers in the City sparing nothing to engage them The King knowing that there daily remained some catch'd in these snares and having just reason to fear that those which returned tempted by their Mistresses might bring back some per●itious designs and the Duke of Nemours being upon the advance with his Troops to joyne with the Duke of Mayenne the Duke of Lorrain being likewise to send his having cause to doubt his retreat might be cut off on all sides found it convenient to discamp from before Paris But before he dislodged he writ to the Protestant Princes to give them an account of what he did and to assure them that nothing should be capable to shake his Constancy or separate him from Christ and he spoke at present according to his thoughts and Conscience not having any desire to change which yet the Ministers of his Religion would not believe but watched him so close on this Subject that they became importunate It was oertainly an unspeakable trouble which continually for three or four years he was forced to undergo to hear on one side the exhortatious of those people and on the other the most instant Remonstrances of the Catholicks for it was necessary he should allay the distrust of the first and entertain the second with continual hopes of making himself be instructed How much prudence had he need of how much patience with how much jugdement and policy must he manage such great differences Certainly he could not do it without imploying all the powers of his Spirit and experience And he well knew how far it was necessary for a Prince to have his Spirit happily exercised and to be well instructed how to Negotiate and Speak well to be able at his necessity to serve himself of his talent Without falsity he might well at present praise those who having had the care of bringing him up had formed him in his youth to the Management of affairs to Treating with men and to the gaining the affections of all the world Those last devoirs he desired to render his Predecessor served as a fair

of his Conversion and in the mean time they would continually keep him as it were besieged by those strangers forces In effect Elizabeth who had zeal for the Protestant religion interested her self very strongly in the cause of this King daily generously assisted him and strenuously sollicited the German Princes to co●cur with her At the same time the Hugonots pressed with all their force that he would grant them an Edict for the Free exercise of their Religion they pursued it so strongly that he was forced to accord it them and they sent it to the Parliament sitting at Tours but they could never obtain it to be confirmed by them but with these words by proviso only shewing themselves as much enemies to this false Religion as they were to the factions of the League During this time Pope Sixtus 5. died leaving in the Treasury of the Church Five Millions of gold which he had heaped up He was much disgusted at the League and stretched forth his armes as much as he could to our Henry to recal him into the Church whilst the League endeavoured to shut the gates against him that they might exclude him from his Royalty To Sixtus succeeded Urban 7. who held the Seat only thirteen daies and to that Urban Gregory the 14. who being of a violent spirit and a Spaniard by inclination zealously embraced the party of the League as we shall see hereafter I silently pass over divers enterprizes made both by one party and the other The Parisians made one upon St. Denis The Cavalier d' Aumale one of their Chiefs whom they called the Lion Rampant of the League was killed in the midst of the City when he had made himself almost master of it The King on his side made an other attempt upon Paris It was called the battail of the Flour because he was to surprize the City under pretext of a Convoy of Flour or Meal carried thither but it was discovered and obliged the Duke of Mayenne upon the vehement cries of the Sixteen to receive four thousand Spaniards into the Garrison which retarded for more then a year the reduction of Paris It is convenient to understand that neither the one nor the other party having any foundation to keep continually their Armies on foot they only as we may say made War by intervals When they had been three months together they retired and then re-assembled again and according as they were stronger or weaker made their enterprises The King having Rendezvouzed his besieged the City of Chartres where la Bourdaisiere commanded There was but a small Garrison within yet however the siege was long difficult and bloody It s length gave subject to the third party to continue many dangerous intrigues but the taking of that place repressed them for some time He restored the Government to Chiverni Chancellour of France who had had it before the League seized it After this the Duke of Mayenne who beheld himself in no very good Estate following the Counsel of the Duke of Parma renewed a Conference for peace which ending without doing any thing the Princes Lorrains and the Principal Chiefs of the League held a general Assembly at Reims It was resolved that they being altogether too weak to resist the King and wanting money it was absolutely necessary to unite themselves more firmely with Spain then they had formerly done and to this Effect they dispatched the President Janin to Philip the second This President was a man of a strong brain and a good French-man who laboured for the League and for the Duke of Mayenne but who would save the Estate by saving the Religion so that he well endeavoured to serve himself of the Spaniard but he would not serve them or procure their advancement Yet we cannot doubt but as he had his ends they had likewise theirs and that they designed to make good their expences laid out for the League on the Kingdom of France The Spaniard had for Aid and Second in his design the new Pope Gregory the 14. who yet went on more swiftly and with more heat then he for without having regard either to the Letters which Monsieur de Luxembourg after Duke of Piney writ to him on the part of the Princes and Catholick Lords which were in the Kings party or to the submissions and three humble Remonstrances made him by the Marquis of Pisany who was there at Rome deputed from them he strenuously embraced the party of the League entertained correspondence with the Sixteen receiving Letters from them and writing to them and which is more he prodigally wasted that treasure which Sixtus 5. had heaped up to raise an Army of twelve thousand men giving the Command to Count Hercules Sfondrato his Nephew whom he made expresly Duke of Montmarcian to authorize him the more by this new title He accompanied this Army with a Monitory or Bull of Excommunication against the Prelates which followed the King and sent it by Marcelin Landriano his Nuntio with great quantity of Silver to the Sixteen of Paris to be distributed among them and the Chiefs of the Cabals in the great Cities The Parliament at Tours having had advice of this Monitory caused it to be torn by the hand of the Common Scavenger and decreed an Arrest against the Nuntio That at Paris on the contrary annulled that Arrest as being said they by persons without power and commanded that the holy Father and his Nuntio should be obeyed After all these Bulls produced no great effect at present and the Cardinal of Bourbon tormented himself in vain to make the assembly of the Clergy which was held at Chartres declare against the Arrest at Tours Nor did the Army of the Pope do any great exploits but was almost quite dispersed ere it came to render any Service The same arrived not to those Troops the King had caused to be raised in Germany by the Viscount of Turenne They served the King well in his affairs and gained him notable advantages In recompence he honoured this Lord with the Staff of Marshal of France to render him the more capable to Espouse Charlotta de la Mark Dutchess of Bouillon and Sovereign Lady of Sedan who though a Hugonot had been puissantly sought to both by friendship and force by the Duke of Lorrain who desired to marry her to his Eldest Son the Marquis du Pont. The King made this Match to oppose a man to the Duke of Lorrain who helped to sustain the League Of which the new Marshal acquitted himself having among other fair exploits surprized Stenay the night preceding his Nuptials The King had another great Captain in the Daulphinate which was Lesdiguieres who held that Country having reduced the City of Grenoble and who saved Provence for him of which the Duke of Savoy thought to seize himself and dismember that piece from the Crown This Duke being Son-in-law to Philip the second King of

but I with my Gray Jacket will give you good effects I am all Gray without but you shall find me Gold within I will see your desires and answer them the most favourably I can possible All his Prudence and all his Address were not too much to teach him to govern himself so that both the Catholicks and Pope might be content with his Conduct and the Hugonots have no cause to be alarmed or cantonize themselves His Duty and his Conscience carried him to the assistance of the first but Reason of State and the great Obligations he had to the last permitted him not to make them despair To keep therefore a necessary temperature he granted them an Edict more ample then the precedent It was called The Edict of Nantes because it was concluded the year before in that City whilst he was there by this he granted them all liberty for the exercise of their Religion and likewise license to be admitted to Charges to Hospitals to Colledges and to have Schools in certain places and preaching every where and many other things of which they are since deprived by reason of their Rebellions and divers Enterprizes The Parliament strongly opposed it for more then a year but in the end when they were made understand that not to accord that security to the Hugonots who were both powerful and quarrelsome were to rekindle new War in the Kingdom they confirmed it On the other side to sweeten the Pope who might be troubled at this Edict the King shewed him all possible manner of respect and strenuously embraced his interests as appeared in the action of Ferrara in the years 1597. and 1598. This Dutchy is a Fief Male of the holy Seat of which the Popes had formerly invested the Lords of the house of Est in charge of its reversion in default of legitimate Males Alphonso d' Est second of that name and last Duke died in the year 1597. without Children and had left great Treasures to Caesar d' Est Bastard to Alphonso the first his Kinsman He had done what possibly he could to obtain the Investiture of the Dutchy on this Bastard who not able to obtain it yet ceased not to take possession of it after the death of Alphonso the second resolving to maintain it by force of Arms. Clement the eighth was obliged to make War against him to dispossess him the Princes of Italy took part in the Quarrel and the Dukes of Guise and Nemours were upon the point to undertake the defence of Caesar whose near Kinsmen they were being the issues of Anne d' Est Daughter of Hercules the second Duke of Ferrara and of Madam Renee de France for that Anne in her first marriage had espoused Francis Duke of Guise and in her second James Duke of Nemours The King of Spain likewise favoured him underhand not desiring that the Pope should grow greater in Italy by the re-union of that Dutchy But Henry the great was not wanting to take this occasion to offer his Sword and his Forces to the holy Father The Allies knowing it were extreamly disheartned and he constrained to treat with the Pope to whom he surrendred all the Dutchy of Ferrara There remained to him onely the Cities of Modena and Regia which the Emperour maintained to be Fief of the Empire and of which he gave him the Investiture From whence came the present Dukes of Modena If the heat which the King testified in this occasion for the interests of the holy Seat sensibly obliged the Pope that care which he made dayly appear to bring back the Hugonots into the bosome of the Church was no less agreeable to him He acted to this purpose in such a manner that from day to day many of the most understanding and of the best quality were converted But that which was more important was his taking the young Prince of Conde from the hands of the Hugonots who had kept him diligently at St. John d' Angely ever since the death of his Father which happened in the year 1587. and brought him up in the false Religion with great hope to make him one day their Chief and Protector The King considering how it would be both prejudicial to the safety of the young Prince and to his own interests to leave him longer there knew so well how to gain the principal of the party that they suffered him to be brought to Court and he gave him for Governour John Marquess of Pisani a Lord of a rare merit and of a wisdome without reproach who forgot not to instruct him well in the Catholick Religion and in the truest sentiments of Honour and Vertue He was yet but seven or eight years old when he came to nine the King gave him the Government of Guyenne loving him tenderly and cherishing him as his presumptive Successour During this calm of the peace nothing was spoken of but rejoycings feasts and marriages That of the Infanta of Spain Isabella-Clara-Eugenia and of the Arch-Duke Albert was solemnized in the Low-Countries and that of Madam Katherine sister of the King with Henry Duke of Bar eldest son to Charles the second Duke of Lorrain at Paris Katherine was forty years of age more agreeable then fair having one Leg a little short She was very spiritual loved Learning and knew much for a woman but was an obstinate Hugonot The King feared lest she should marry some Protestant Prince who by this means might become Protector of the Hugonots and be like another King in France by reason of which he gave her to the Duke of Bar thinking moreover to gain more belief among the Catholicks by allying himself with the house of Lorrain Before this he had used all possible means to convert her even to the employing of threats but not being able to do it he said one day to the Duke of Bar My Brother it is you must vanquish her There was some difficulty about the place and the Ceremony of Celebration of this marriage the Duke would have it done at the Church and the Princess by a Hugonot-Minister The King found a mean he caused it to be done in his Closet whither he led his Sister by the hand and commanded his natural Brother who had for about two years been Archbishop of Rouen to marry them This new Archbishop at first made some refusal of it alledging the Canons but the King representing to him that his Closet was a consecrated place and that his presence supplyed the default of all solemnities the poor Archbishop had no longer power to resist him This Marriage being made for the good of the Catholick Religion it seemed that the Pope should have been content Nevertheless not willing to suffer an ill that a good might come of it he declared that the Duke of Bar had incurred Excommunication for having without the dispensation of the Church contracted with an Heretick nor ever could the Duke

Justice is denied them they may do it themselves and have recourse to force when their prayers cannot prevail This is the cause of almost all seditions and this is it which made all those beyond the Loire incensed at this imposition drive away the Factors and which is more kill some of them The Farmers on the other side sharpned the mischief by their furious threats that they would dismantle the rebellious Cities that they would build Citadels to keep them in awe And I believe that these Gentlemen did desire it should be so not out of love to the Kings Authority which they had still in their mouths but for their proper revenge and particular advantage The King having advice of these Commotions fearing left they were raised by the Emissaries of the faction of the Duke of Byron which he had then newly discovered a little after Easter departed from Fontainblean came from Blois and from thence to Poictiers There he favourably hearkned to the complaints of his people and remonstrated to the Deputies of the Cities of Guyenne That the Imposts raised were not to enrich his Ministers and Favourites as his Predecessour had done but to support the necessary charges of his Estate That if his demeans had been sufficient for it be would not have taken any thing out of his Subjects purses but since he had first employed all his own it was just they should contribute some of theirs That he passionately desired the ease of his Subjects and that none of his Predecessours had so much desired their prayers to God as he to bless the increase of his Realm That those Alarms given them that he had a designe to build Castles in the Cities were false and seditious for he desired to have no other Forts then in the hearts of his Subjects By these sweet Remonstrances he calmed all the seditions without having need of chastising them save onely that the Consuls of Limoges were deposed and the Pancarte for so it was they called the Sol pour livre established But this was onely for the honour of the Royal Authority for soon after this Prince the most just and best that ever was knowing the extream Vexations it caused revoked and utterly abolished it The second thing which gave him yet more trouble and which was capable to overthrow his Kingdome if it were not remedied was The Conspiracy of Marshal Byron It is to be understood that Laffin had been the principal Instrument of intelligence between the Marshal and the Duke of Savoy he had carried and re-carried Letters and had had some Conferences with the Duke and with the Count of Fuentes so that he understood the whole intrigue But seeing that there was no assurance in the words of the Savoyard and that Byron began to shake he resolved to discover the whole plot to the King were it that he feared lest if he should too long delay it it might be discovered other ways or that he hoped by this service to gain a great recompence and restore himself to the Kings favour with whom he stood on very ill terms Having laid this designe he employed the Vidame of Chartres his Nephew to obtain from the King his Grace and Oblivion of all passed on condition that he discovered to him the Complices of the Conspiracy and furnished him with proofs He had preserved several Letters committed to his keeping but they said not enough nor spoke so clearly as to make a Conviction But to pass an absolute one see what he did Byron had some Notes written with his own hand wherein the Conspiracy was laid down in Articles Laffin remonstrated to him that it was an imprudence to keep them and to communicate them because his writing was too well known that it would be more secure to make a Copy and burn the Original Byron approving his counsel gives them him to transcribe He indeed transcribes them whilst Byron lay on his Bed afterwards giving him the Copy and ruffling up the Original he makes shew of casting it into the fire but by a premeditated cunning he casts in some other Papers and keeps them A thing of this importance deserved well the care of Byron himself in its burning but he not taking it because God so permitted that negligence cost him his life as we shall see After this Laffin continuing still his devices to endeavour yet to gather some more particular secrets he went disguised to Milan and conferred with the Count Fuentes but this close and able Spaniard finding well that he would betray them shewed himself more reserved It hath been reported that Laffin having knowledge of this distrust was fearful lest he should make him away and therefore returned by the unusual and unfrequented ways of which the Duke of Savoy being advertized by Fuentes kept prisoner the Secretary of Laffin named Renaze for fear lest he should go serve as a witness against Byron In their Conferences they had proposed to dismember the Kingdom of France That the Duke of Savoy should have Provence and the Daulphinate Byron Bourgongne and la Bresse with the third Daughter of the Duke in marriage and fifty thousand Crowns for Dower some others should be Lords of other Provinces with the quality of Peers That all these little Soveraigns should hold their right from the King of Spain That to compass this designe the Spaniards should with a puissant Army enter the Kingdom and the Savoyard with another That they should cause the Hugonots to stir and at the same time revive many discontents in several places and animate the people already much incensed by the Pancarte or Tax of a Sol pour livre All these propositions say some were made in the time of the war against Savoy and the Marshal of Byron grown outragious at the Kings refusal to give him the Citadel of Bourg had not only lent his eare but had engaged himself very far in these damnable designs However he seemed to have repented himself for he had confessed them to the King walking with him in the Cloister of the Cordiliers at Lions and had demanded pardon of him but he had neglected to take an abolition or script of indempnity contrary to the advice of the Duke d' Espernon who was more wise and considerate then he But a little after repenting himself for having repented he was returned to his first fault and yet entertained correspondence with strangers Moreover he spoke of the King with little respect abasing the splendor of his worthy actions glorifying his own and boasting that he had put the Crown on his head and preserved France In fine all his discourses were onely Bravadoes Rhodomontadoes and Threats All this was reported to the King It was told him that he undervalued his great acts extolled the power of the King of Spain praysed the wisdome of that Princes Council his liberality in recompencing all good services and his zeal to defend

the true Religion The King answered plainly and prudently to those that made him these reports That he knew the heart of Byron that it was faithful and affectionate that in truth his tongue was intemperate but that in favour of those good actions he had done he could pardon his ill discourses Now two things compleated his loss and obliged the King to search into the very bottom of his wicked designs The first was the too great number of his friends and the affection of the Souldiery which he made boast of as if they had been absolute dependants on his Command and capable to do whatever he would The second the most particular friendship he had with the Count d' Auvergne brother by the Mothers side to Madamoiselle d' Entragues who was called the Marchioness of Verneuil For by the one he begat a jealousie in the King and made himself be feared and by the other he rendred himself odious to the Queen who imagined and possibly not without cause that he would make a party in the Kingdom to maintain that Rival and her Children to her prejudice Now the King desiring to search the farthest he could into this affair sends for Laffin who comes to Fountain-bleau more then a month before the King departed towards Poictou He had at first some very secret entertainments with him afterwards very publick ones and gave him great quantities of Papers amongst other those Memoires or Notes written by Byrons own hand of which we have before spoken That which Laffin revealed to the King begat great inquietudes in his spirit so that in all the voyage of Poictiers he was observed extremely pensive and the Court after his example was plunged in a sad astonishment though none could divine the cause of it At his return from Poictiers to Fountainbleau he sent for the Duke of Byron to come to him The Duke at first doubted to go and excused himself with many weak reasons He presses him and sends to him some of his Esquires afterwards the President Janin brought him word that he should receive no harme which was provided he put himself into an estate to receive grace and aggravated not his crime by his pride and by his impenitence Byron knew that Laffin had made a voyage to Court but he was more assured of that man then of himself Moreover the Baron of Lux his confident who was then there had told him that Laffin had without doubt kept his Counsel and not revealed any thing which might hurt him De Lux believed so because the King after having entertained Laffin had told him with a merry countenance I am glad I have seen this man he hath eased me of many distrusts and suspitions of spirit In the mean time the friends of Byron writ to him that he should not be such a fool as to bring his head to the Court that it would be more secure for him to justifie himself by Attorny then in person But notwithstanding this advice and against biting of his own conscience after having some time deliberated he took post and came to Fountain-bleau now when the King no longer expected him but prepared to go seek him The Histories of that time and many other relations recount exactly all the circumstances of the imprisonment process and death of that Marshal I shall content my self to relate onely the chief The insolence and blindness of this unhappy man cannot be sufficiently admired at nor on the contrary the goodness and clemency of the King be enough praised who endeavoured to overcome his obstinacy Confession of a fault is the first mark of repentance The King taking him in private instantly conjured him to declare all those intelligences and Treaties he had made with the Duke of Savoy engaging his faith that he would bury all in an eternal oblivion That he knew well enough all the particulars but desired to understand them from his mouth swearing to him that though his fault should be greater then the worst of crimes his confession should be followed by an absolute pardon Byron in stead of acknowledging it or at least excusing himself with modesty as speaking to his King who was offended insolently answered him that he was innocent and that he was not come to justifie himself but to understand the names of his back-biters and demand justice which otherwise he would do himself Though this too haughty answer aggravated much his offence the King ceased not sweetly to tell him that he should think farther of it and that he hoped he would take better counsel The same day after supper the Count of Soissons exhorted him likewise on the part of the King to confess the truth concluding his Remonstrance with that sentence of the Wiseman Sir know that the anger of the King is as the Messenger of Death But he answered him with more fierceness then he had done the King On the morrow morning the King walking in his Gardens conjured him the second time to confess the Conspiracy but he could draw nothing from him but protestations of innocency and threatnings of his accusers Upon this the King felt himself agitated even at the bottom of his soul with divers thoughts not knowing what he ought to do The affection he had born him and his great services withheld his just anger on the other side the blackness of his crime his pride and obstinacy gave reins to his justice and obliged him to punish the criminal Besides that the danger with which both his Estate and Person were threatned seemed impossible to be prevented but by cutting off the head of a conspiracy whose bottom was scarce visible In this trouble of spirit he retired into his Closet and falling on his knees prayed to God with all his heart to inspire him with a good resolution He was accustomed to do thus in all his great affairs esteeming God as his surest Counsellour and most faithful assistance At his coming from prayers as he said afterwards he found himself delivered from the trouble wherein he was and resolved to cast Byron into the hands of Justice if his Council found that the proofs they had by writing were so strong that there need no doubt be made of his Condemnation He chose for this purpose four persons of those which composed it to wit Bellievre Villeroy Rosny and Sillery and shewed them the proofs They all told him with one voice that they were more then sufficient Yet after this he would make a third trial on this proud heart He employed this last time Remonstrances Prayers Conjurations and assurances of pardon to oblige him to acknowledge his crime but he answered still in the same manner adding that if he knew his accusers he would break their heads In fine the King wearied with his Rhodomontadoes and obstinacy left him giving him these for his last words Well then we must learn the truth in another place Farewel Baron