Protestants in France during this Civil War they are so sad they need no comment An unparralled murther but indeed that which follows is not to be paralleld for perfidious treachery Breach of the faith of a King and Court and for hellish and unheard-of cruelties sad murthers in cold blood upon Lords Gentlemen poor Ladies Rivers swimming with bodies and died with blood Indeed the most sad Tragedie that ever was yet acted upon the theatre of the world by Turks Heathens or Christians CHAP. IV. The Contents THE King and Queen Mother lay siege to Haver de grace which surrendered on Henourable tearms The King is declared out of his minority and swears to observe the Edict of Pacification but keeps not his oath nor promise The Council of Trent meet a League is made between the King of France and King of Spain called the Holy League the Cardinal of Lorain posts to Rome to desire the Pope to cause the French to observe the decrees of the Council of Trent Great heart-burnings arise The Protestants dayly complain to the King of their injuries desiring him to keep to his covenant but to no purpose The King and Queen Mother in progress rides through the Nation and secretly confer with the Popes Messenger and the King of Spain They come to Lyons and forbid the exercise of the Protestant Religion Many Protestants cruelly and inhumanly murthered by the Catholicks in several places The King and Queen Mother treacherously leavie six thousand Switzers to destroy the Protestants Letters are intercepted which discover a bloody plot against the Prince of Conde the Admiral and all the Protestants The Prince Admiral and Principal Protestants seize on Troys Lyons and Tholouse The King and Queen Mother forced to ret reat to Paris Thâ—â— beginning of the second war the King sends an Herauld to the Prince of Conde and Admiral Their answer The Principal of both Parties treat but to no purpose The Prince and Admirals answer to their Demands The Protestants never embrace a more sure ruin then a peace with the King The Armies meet and engage the success The Prince of Conde and Admiral march to join with Prince Casimir who had raised twelve thousand men for their aid The Duke of Lorrain made General of the Kings Army Prince Casimirs Noble Declaration in defence of the Protestants The Prince of Conde's Gallant speech to the Army A gallaut Resolution in a free Contribution through the Princes Army Prince of Conde and Admiral join with Prince Casimirs Army The Prince of Conde besieges Chartres The Queen Mothers treachery and speech a peace concluded but full of Treason Guile and hypocrisie The Protestants no sooner dismiss their Armies and deliver up their Garrisons but are speedily filled with Souldiers of the Kings A bloody Cabinet Council erected by the King They plot to cut off the Protestants but are discovered The Kings Army suddenly begirts the chief of the Protestants but they escape with their families to Rochel The Queen of Navar comes to Rochel with horse and foot Cardinall Castillon flies to England disguised The Prince of Conde and Admiral publish a manifesto to all Christian Princes the Queen of Navar declares for the Protestants A bloody Edict is published by the King that none should profess any other Religion but the Romish the King of France strangely declares to all the world That he meant not what he said WE concluded the latter part of the second chapter with a Peace concluded at Orleans whereupon was publickly proclamed a free liberty for the Protestants according to the Edict of Pacification Now the King and Queen Mother endeavour to reduce Haverdegrace to their obedience which the Protestant party had delivered up to the Queen of England as aforesaid The Kings Army besieges Haverdegrace To which purpose they lay siege the Town holds out a good while till at last being sore streightned and no hopes left of relief they come to conditions of surrenders but before Hostages were delivered and English Fleet of sixty brave Ships appears under sayl fleering directly to the Port but the Earl of VVarwick like a true hearted Englishman scorning to dishonour his Nation with such perfidious treachery as most of the French acted he sends word to the Admiral of the Fleet Honourably surrendred that the Town was to be surrendred that day being the seventeenth day of July and so performed his Contract to his great Honour I cannot compare this noble act to any but that brave Roman Consuls who being taken by the Carthaginians in Africa had liberty given to return to Rome to effect the release of some Prisoners and in them his own in exchange promising to return prisoner if he could not Now when he came to the Senate he perswades them not â—o accept of the conditions and so according to his promise returned and was miserably tormented to death Oh that it might be said so of our Charls the Ninth that he had but been regardful of his Oaths and covenants then had not we been partakers of such a sad spectacle of cruelty by reading this bloody Tragedie The Catholicks now after this peace at Orleans feared the greatest visible power rested in the Prince of Conde So the Queen Mother treads in her old paths of deceit intending by her cunning subtilty to cut off all pretences of right to the Government by the Princes of the blood The King declared out of his minority and swears in the presence of God to olserve the Edict of Pacification to which purpose she causes the King now but fourteen years old to be declared King and past his Minority She carries his Majestie to Roan and there the fifteenth day of December 1563. they went Solemnly with all the Lords of the Court and Officers of the Crown to the Parliament Where in the presence of the Counsellours he received the usual Ceremonies used in France at the Coronation the Parliament publishing the Declaration of his Majority the King there publickly protested and swore in the presence of Almighty God That be would for ever after duly observe the Edict of Pacification threatning all opposers for such was his express will and pleasure Thus all things seem in a peaceable way one would now think so much blood expences of treasure and a consumption of his subjects would weary any nation and make any King rejoice For a peace is the more sweetned by the effects of a Civil war already felt for two extreams illustrate each other The peace not kept But alas this peace succeeds not the hopefull expectation of his peaceable subjects in many places it was not observed The Council of Trent meets The King of Spain and France make a league and call it the Holy league And now assembles that Council known by the name of the Council of Trent who meet for the maintainance of the Catholick Religion Now the Cardinal of Lorrain being an active Agent to forward any design
to the King of Navar the King crowned the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise contends at the Coronation about precedency the King gives it to the Duke of Guise the Constable forsakes the Protestants and cleaves to the Duke of Guise the Queen Mother for her own advantage joyns with the King of Navar and gives some liberty to the Protestants which so enrages the Catholick party as presently all former Edicts in behalf of the Protestants were broken by a contrary Edict that no Religion should be suffered in the Kingdom but the Romish the King and Queen Mother subscribes thereunto the Protestants at their request have a Conference granted they meet and confer in a hot Dispute but agree not the Catholicks murder many Protestants in Paris the eight Parliaments of France assembles the Duke of Guise disapproved of it and so in a fury departs the Court and goes for Spain the Protestants deluded by the Queen Mother gives her a List of all their Forces the King of Navar turns Catholick the eight Parliaments meet and with the consent of the King and Queen Mother do decree a free and publick Toleration of the Protestant Religion but speedily a sad and cruel Massacre the Duke of Guise furiously assaults the Protestants at a Sermon and murders two hundred of them the Protestants complain to the Prince of Conde of breach of Covenant and Edict the Duke of Guise seises on the King and carries him to Paris the Queen Mother writes to the Prince of Conde for aid against the Duke of Guises Attempt the Prince in his journey to Court suddenly retires to Orleance and possesses it the first Civil War begins The death of King Francis and Reign of King Charls FRancis second King of that name dying the fourteenth of December 1560. made entrance for the Reign of Charls the ninth and as the first died of a Feaver so the last reigned in a Frensie the legitimate off-spring of his Predecessours disease whose short Reign was thought too much lengthened by the train of all sorts of bloudy cruelties which filled this poor distracted Nation of France whose wicked Reign was also attended with the sable clouds of Flagellum Dei which swept both Field and City The beginning of his wicked Reign had a bloudy ending to the poor Kingdom and himself for the bodies of the murthered Protestants was a Prey to the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Fields the whole Nation wearing the Pensive Weeds of a Ruinous Distraction for through the Lords just Judgments on the Nation they suffer nothing less than all Roberies Rapes and all sorts of Cruelties with horrid Massacres for the space of twelve years And as the Prologue of his Reign was Perjury and Treachery so was the Epilogue Bloudy to himself and poor Nation especially to the poor innocent Protestants A Parliament sits and the Government committed to the Queen Mother during the Kings minority A Parliament being called they begin the 23. of December Now at this time in the Court of France was Katherine de Medices Pope Clements Brothers Daughter and this Kings Mother who being born in Florence a City of Italy had conferr'd upon her the Government of this Kingdom in the Kings minority for it is well known that according to the Laws of this Nation neither the Administration nor Inheritance thereof can justly be cast on the shoulders of a Woman and yet against this Law and through the negligence of the King of Navar the said Queen Mother was joyned with him in the Office of Protectorship the confirmation of her Regency being allowed of by the Chancellour was afterwards confirmed by the Speakers Now in this Assembly of Parliament one John Quintin a Doctor of the Common Law at Paris for the Clergy pleads that none of the Religion Reformed for so they called the Protestants should any more be tolerated or suffered and desired that the Laws in that case provided might be put in speedy execution but the day following that brave Commander and good Christian Gasper de Coligni the Admiral of the Protestants complained to the Queen Mother against the said Quintin who presently excuses himself and in his second Speech moderates his Plea to the Admirals content The Parliament a little enlarges the Protestants privileges Now the Estates proceeds in their consultations making themselves and the beginning of this year somewhat happy by some moderation in matters of Religion whereby the reproachfull names of Papist and Hugenot was forbidden upon pain of Death which name Hugenot they fixed in disdain and derision to the Protestants and was derived from a Gate-house in Tours called St. Hughs Gate where they met in Assemblies Many good and necessary Laws were then published but with more confusiom than advantage for Laws though good and many yet through want of a due execution by the Magistrates power makes the good intent thereof to be perverted and turned into an indirect Channel giving the people cause to slight such wholesom Laws and grow bad under a good Government Great contentions and private animosities arose between the Princes of the Bloud that is the Prince of Conde and King of Navar who were Protestants and Francis Duke of Guise who was descended of the House of Lorain and now Grand Master of the Kings House who being a strong Catholick was no less a bitter Enemy to the poor Protestants the Queen Mother in her affections did secretly incline to the Duke of Guise yet to secure her own interest and power in the Kings minority carried fair to both The Princes of the Bloud being Protestants in discontent absent from Court but the King of Navar and Prince of Conde with the Constable seeing themselves justled out of that power and favour in Court which as due they did expect and also foreseeing the event which must necessarily ensure having onely the pacings of the Duke of Guise they absent from Court with all their Attendants resolving to right their wrong on the Queen Mothers Regency and the Guisans usurpation of their unlimited power Now the Queen Mother by her subtil and natural insight to secret affairs judged so at their Discontent that she politickly cast her Cards that both might have a good hand yet deald her self the Trumps checking their power that they might not check hers The King of Navar by the Queens policy jointly governs with her To which purpose she makes a new Agreement with the Navarois concluding him in the Government that taking the Title and Power of Regency to her self he should be called and but called Lieutenant General to his Majesty All this but in Paper and Ink composed of a double intent but those that can break Oaths witnessed by God and all the World how soon can they swallow and digest the breach of such Paper-promises like that good Actor in Smyrna that cried O Terram yet pointing to the Heaven and O Coelum yet pointing to the earth
which when one of the Spectators saw in anger he said to the company This fellow has made a Solicism spoken as it were false Greek with his hand And indeed here it was so with the Queen Mother too many Leagues being betwixt her heart and her mouth for we shall ere long see these two parties the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise and Queen Mother make greater wounds in a short time than Ages can afterwards cure The Prince of Conde we must understand was now at liberty and freed from the unjust Sentence against him in the Reign of Francis the second which was for some pretended Fact but indeed was for his Religion sentenced to be executed but the Kings death prevented it The Protestant Princes desire a Toleration The Prince of Conde and King of Navar with the Admiral and other principal of the Protestants desire of the Queen Mother a Toleration for their Religion but the Queen Mother now tottering between these two Factions of the Princes of the Bloud and Guisans counted all things below the present danger of either parties getting power and so thought it not fit therefore to deny their request telling them withall that it could not yet publckly be granted by her to the content and satisfaction of all therefore she would secretly promise them her best way of bargaining that she governing by common consent with the King of Navar would by indirect by ways so work under hand upon emergency of occasions which might daily occur that at last it should incensibly yet assuredly come to pass to their own desire which says she suddenly proclamed might render you in danger and my self out of power to help you These things the Queen Mother promised being forced by necessity and dissembling pollicy for her own safety and security but it is ill making a fast Bargain with a loose Merchant nothing by her being less intended than really promised for she thought it fit and convenient for preservation of her Son's and own interest not wholly to put under hatches nor quite to extinguish the power of the Duke of Guise who was an apt weight to ballance and counterpoise the Power of the Princes of the Bloud desiring to carry it so to both that she might displease neither till she had a sure staff of the one and the other no power lest to oppose hers which at last answered her hellish Plot so that reserving many things to the benefit of time and future industry she left no stone unrolled to provide for time to come and to remedy the present Distractions The Protestants increase and the Princes of the Bloud protect them and presses the Queen Mother for her promise of Toleration Now the goodness of God in converting many to the Protestant Religion appears in a great and vast multiplication of the Professours thereof the King of Navar and Prince of Conde with the Admiral protects and defends them who earnestly presses the Queen Mother to perform her Promises for a free Toleration of their Religion she findes many nice excuses and well-spun pretences to evade the dint of their resolute desires and her absolute promise endeavouring by most subtile arts of perswasion to put off the performance of her Promise till a seasonable oportunity offered to ripen her Designs But the King of Navar daily pressed forward and grew more and more earnest for the speedy effecting of it and he did so publickly reason their case that many of the Kings Council yielded to the force of his Arguments disbanding their former Reasons on the contrary for the King of Navar alleged that it pittied his soul to see so many Protestants and the Kings true Subjects scattered from their peaceable habitations for fear of death and danger and did further profess it did deeply penetrate his heart with an abhortency to think of any more effusion of blood Amongst those of the Religion were many of pregnant wit and Christian courage that with small Tracts in Print dispersed as also with sober Petitions seasonably presented did at last help forward their desires to a speedy Grant A Decree for Release of all Protestants that were imprisoned for their Religion The Queen being now forced to yield gave way by a Decree of the Council at Fontainbleau the 28. of January 1560. That the Magistrates should release all such Prisoners as stood committed for matters of Religion to their former freedom prohibiting all Reproaches of either party with Heretick or Papist To search no mans house The Protestants by this being not fully authorized by a full Toleration and free Exercise of their Religion yet were somewhat satisfied by this seeming Inclination thereunto at least being protected from the present violence daily threatned The Queen Mother would not suppress their power yet would she depress their growth The King of Navar has the Keys of the Palace delivered to him which his great Enemy the Duke of Guise kept Now the King of Navar falling short of the full Grant of the Queens Promise proceeds further to a full Grant which she had secretly made to him requiring that as he was the Kings Lieutenant General the Keys of the Palace might be assigned to him which the Duke of Guise as Grand Master always and at this day kept The Queen as she was loath to offend the Duke of Guise and his party who with the Duke of Lorain upheld the Catholick Cause and Religion so was she as carefull to please the King of Navar and Protestant Princes till time gave a more secure season to bring about her desires for her desire was to be firmly seated betwixt them both by a plausible carriage to either and keeping them both dependents to her power and both equal in strength that neither might have encouragement to murmour To which purpose she is the more willing to favour the King of Navar in his request by reason at this time she findes the power of the Duke of Guise a Pin higher than the Princes of the Bloud and invested with more power than jumped with her purposes she conceived this a fit oportunity to pull down the Guisans power to an equal ballance with the Princes of the Bloud which suiting with her own interest she willingly executed their growth at this time being high and insolent and at all times of an aspiring nature as that they could not be content to fit under the Pent-house of their present power but must suddenly aspire to the pitch of their ambitious aim So the Queen caused the Keys of the Palace to be delivered into the custody of the Kings Lieutenant General the King of Navar. At this the Duke of Guise is highly enraged whose pride findes no bounds but reserved and secret revenge waiting for a fit oportunity to desplay his envenomed hate so that he dissembles his inveterate anger and malice he bore to the Princes of the Bloud and Admiral so he onely makes some shew of discontent for the
tacit Toleration granted the Protestants which doubtless was as real as his malice to their persons for the sad event will too soon and surely demonstrate so that now the discords of these great men seemed to be enveloped in a good satisfaction of their present conditions all discontent seeming to be vanished and laid aside in the Grave of obscure forgetfulness The King of France crowned Now is thought the fittest time to confirm the Kings authority by crowning him though in his minority which was ordered to be done according to the usual Ceremonies accustomed to all the Kings of France in their Coronation to which end and purpose the King journeys to Rheims and there by the Cardinal of Lorain was solemnly crowned and conducted to the City of Paris The King at the Coronation gives the right of precedency from the Princes of the Bloud to the Duke of Guise Now at this time of Coronation the Princes of the Bloud and Duke of Guise contend about precedency but it was ordered by the King though against order that the Duke of Guise should precede all the rest which accordingly was performed the Duke of Guise hereupon like Tinder to the Spark took fire of Ambition flying high with an exasperated spirit to the Princes Admiral and principal of the Protestants and to make his power greater and to ingraft himself more firmly to wrestle with opposition and to strenghthen his malicious resolution The Constable turns Catholick he and the Constable strikes a League together for the preservation of the Catholick Religion and to endeavour the utter extirpation of the Religion Reformed But the Queen Mother hearing of their intended intended purposes presently Aprehended her own danger by the Guisans growing greatness and what tall Cedars they would grow if this confederacy took root according to their desires she also considered that the Princes of Lorain were unsatisfied with her late proceedings in behalf of the Protestants and would Assist and endevor a conjunction with the Guisans faction to deprive her of her Government A thing she only desired peacable to enjoy shee Therefore to preserve her own Interest enters into a firm union with the King of Navar the better to ballance the Guisans power and secure her self so that in this juncture of time shee was well pleased that the King of Navar and his party should have some power which she resolves should stand her instead against the Duke of Guise and his Adherents Which indeed fitly served for her own ends It was therefore commended to all the Parliaments by new edicts and Decrees No further to molest any of the Religion and to restore the goods houses and possessions of those that only for the cause of Religion were deprived of them The Parliament in Paris with the assistance of King and Q. Mother dashes in pieces all former Edicts for Toleration and passes an Edict that no Religion should be suffered but the Romish and that all the Protestants should be expelled the Kingdom This gave an ill gust to the Guisans palat who being enraged with malice set on foot all their power in a strong opposition of the Government whereupon the Cardinall of Lorain took occasion at the Councell table the King and Queen Being present to speak against those of the Religion and against the Tolleration and Edicts lately passed in their behalfs whereupon it was resolved with consent of the Councill to summon A Parlament to meet at Paris which accordingly appeared at the day appointed the thirteenth of July and then and there in a full appearance of Palament they shewed to the King their dislike of the Edict passed the 28. of January Beseeching his Majesty to force his subjects to An open profession of the Catholik Appostolik and Romish Religion upon such pains as should he adjudged of in Councill Which Councill brought forth an hellish bratt from the bosoms of their wicked desires for now contrary to all former edicts they pass an edict That all Protestant Ministers should be expelled the Kingdome no religion to he professed but the Romish all Protestant Assemblies forbidden in all places in the Kingdome And thus was the poor Protestants banished their habitations and condemned to seek refreshment and abode else where and to this edict did the King and Queen Mother subscribe whereupon the cheif of the Protestants were very much greived in regard they knew themselves free from any guilt that might challenge such hard measure from the King and Court of France to such faithfull allegiance concluding it must needs proceed from some inveterate malice or deep design Therefore The Protestants desire conference and had it granted The Prince of Conde and Admirall being not able to hinder this edict presently flies to the Queens promise which she had assuredly given them but now as assuredly broke so that no redress could be found there Whereupon they demand of the King liberty for a conference between the Ministers of the Protestants and the Kings Prelats To examine the Articles of their Doctrins before the Kings presence being not without hopes by this moderate way to Interpose that if possible some liberty might be granted At first it was not allowed of but afrer second considerations it was thought meet to answer their desires and give a hearing The Pope hearing of this meeting for a conference and doubting some liberty might thereby follow to be granted to the Protestants and disadvantage of his Authority presently speeds away the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legat to the Court of France withall giving in command that the cause might be referred to the Councell of Trent which by him was published The Protestant Ministers that were banished by reason of this late edict and settled their a bodes in Geneva now had safe conduct allowed them for there security in their journy to Poissy five leagues from Paris being the place apointed for the conference Them that were at this meeting for the Protestants were Theodora Beza Theodora Beza Peter Martir and others with the K. Court and Prelats meet at Poissy but break up and no good done Peter Martir a Florintin John Virell Augustin Virnmelio Marlorat and other Ministers to the Number of twelve with twenty-two Deputies from the Protestant churches On the Romish side came besides the King and Court the Cardinalls of Lorain Tournon Armagnac Bourbon Guise and Chastillon together with the Bishops and Prelats many Doctors of Sorbon also with many others sent for from most Cities and Universities in the Kingdom This meeting began the nineth day of September in the year 1561. the Relation being at large Recorded I leave the reader to peruse at his liberty But this conference proved not such a salve for the sad distractions of the kingdom as was expected for the Catholicks resolved to continue in force the late edict against the Protestants so that they were in many places forced to stand upon their own guards against the violent attempts of
him that he would with all carefull speed powerfully to provide for their common safety assuring him that she would imprint his willing care into the Kings minde that he should never be a loser by it The Prince of Conde possesses Orleans The Prince of Conde being on his journey to Court news was brought him in the way how things were carried That they had taken the King and brought him to Paris Then presently the Admiral advances towards him and overtaking him they make a stand and there consulted what to do whereupon seeing their own danger the Duke speedily hasted to Orleans and possessed it And this was the beginning of the first Civil War CHAP. II. The Contents THe Prince of Conde publishes a Manifesto laying down the Reasons of taking Arms. Burges and Orleans are the Potestants refuge The King declares against the Prince The Armies meet but engage not The Prince and Admiral dispose of their Armies into Garisons The Kings Army takes and sacks some Towns takes Burges on conditions The Queen Mother unmasks her self causing the Protestants to be proclamed Rebels The Prince and Admiral delivers up Roan Diep and Haverdegrace to Queen Elizabeth of England The Kings Army besieges Roan where the King of Navar is slain and the City stormed and sacked for three days together with cruel murdring De Andelot joynswith the Admiral The Prince of Conde and Admiral advances to the City of Paris The Kings Army advances for defence of the City The Protestants march toward Normandy to receive Queen Elizabeths supplies The Kings Army follows them they joyn Battel where both Generals are taken Prisoners The Admiral with his Army marches to Normandy The Duke of Guise with the Kings Army besieges Orleans the Duke slain before it The Admiral returns from Normandy and enters Orleans A Treaty is begun and Peace concluded at Orleans with free liberty for Religion which is publickly proclamed THe Divisions thus increasing made way to erect a Theatre for a sad Tragedy for the Prince of Conde published a Manifesto and sent Letters also to the King Parliament of Paris Protestant Princes of Germany and to all other Christian Princes The Prince of Conde prints a Manifesto of the grounds of his proceedings The Reasons laid down by the Prince of Conde for his taking Arms. were these The defence of the famous Edict of Toleration which was made by the King being the high Road to Peace if duly observed which could not but be kept without horrible breach of faith and assured ruine of the French Nation in regard there were so many of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation that were Protestants and daily came in to the Religion And those of Noble birth that were in power dignity or otherwise above others thought it not meet to suffer the cruel punishments and Massacres daily inflicted on some and threatned to others since God had given them power to help themselves And further it was declared that the Duke of Guise a new-come Foreiner translated from the Forests of Lorain should usurp such power in France such dominion and command as the Princes of the Bloud must lose their proper interests to be his slaves and vassals against all the Laws of the Nation further declaring That if the King should cause an observation of the Edict for Religion already signed and that Arms might be laid down on the Kings part they were ready to do the like and would speedily lay down their Arms To this he added the Queen Mothers singular care as it was reported and as indeed she did outwardly shew for preservation of peace and pulling down the powerful rage of the Guisans which indeed she so dissembled that on the very account hereof it is certain above twenty thousand Catholiks joyned themselves to the Protestants in defence of their cause Burges Orleans proves a Sanctuary and hiding place in time of Gods These flames being begun could not so easily be extinguished mauy cruelties being committed on the bodies of the poor Protestants without mercy such as will no question draw out tears from the eies of serious Christians being such sad examples of crueltie as cant be believed should have proceeded from any that had known that ever Christianity had been in the world nothing being drunk more eagerly then the blood of the poor Saints Yet in this callamity God provided a place of refuge for such as he pleased in mercy to preserve from their cruelty For Bourges and Orleans being kept by the Protestants The King declares against the prince of Conde did greatly administer comfort to many distressed Christians that fled theither Hereupon the King at Paris declares against the Edict and the Prince of Conde The Queen Mother now arms those she privately huggs in the bosom of ther affections The Prince of Conde desires to lay all private interests aside for preservation of the Publick efusion of blood But the King of Navar the Duke of Guise the Constable and Marshall of St. Andre by an Edict banishes the Protestants out of Paris and sudenly advances towards the Prince of Conde with twelve thousand foot and three thousand horse They find the Prince strong enough to encounter them contrary to ther expectations and De Andelot and Boucart strongly urged to engage the Kings Army the Queen with subtilty and treacherous pollicie beguils the Protestants But the Queen Mother abuses them with her subtile treachery telling them the hopes of agreement was too near for them to undo all by a too hasty ingagement in so much that she fed them with hopes till the Catholick Army increased in strength both with French and forein forces Thus the Queen having delayed and protracted all hopes of Issue by battle the Prince of Conde maintains his Army about two months in such peace to the Country as was not in the least found to be outragious by spoyling or robbing such was the Christian and carefull discipline of the Prince and Admiral of the Protestant Army which in France was the greater wonder because whoring robbing and blaspheming was the usual attendants and constant harbingers to the Catholick camp which could not be avoyded because the King could not keep to so strickt a discipline as the Prince of Conde and Admiral The Prince and Admiral disperse the Armie into several Provinces The Prince of Conde and Admiral wisely prudently like valliant carefull Commanders take all waies to use their present power for future advantages and ensuing Storms so they send out to several Provinces men of approved fidelity to the Protestant cause which proved next to Gods blessing a great help to their success in possessing many strong holds in sundry parts of France as Roan Deip Angiers Blois Vendosme Tours Poictiers Ragency Maus Angoulesme Chalon upon Soan Maskon and the most part of Daulphin The Kings Army secures what they had and falls upon several Towns taking and miserably sacking them which
but was a plot to cut them of His Oathes being as carfully broken as solemnly made And that which gave the Protestants too sure grounds of fear least a storm should fall undiscovered till unavoydable was this When Ferdinando Alvares de Tolleda Duke of Alva was marching into the Low Countries with a puissant Army to subdue the Protestants there that embraced the reformed Religion against the King of Spains will and desire the Queen Mother ordered the raysing of six thousand Switzers and brought them into France pretending forsooeh that they went for guarding the fronteirs of the Kingdom against the attempts that might be made by the Duke of Alva's Army But see how the light of Heaven penetrats into the dark designes of Hell Letters are intercepted in their way from Rome Letter intercepted the Plot discovered and Spain wherein was discovered a plot for the Protestants for therein was found That it was decreed in a secret Councell to apprehend the Prince and Admirall to destroy the one and keep the other Prisoner and therefore if the Prince and Admirall escaped this bloody Tragedy prepared for them and should try it by Arms that then on a sudden ere they could Arme or be provided those six thousand Switzers were to arrive at Paris where was to remain two thousand as many into Orleans and the rest into Poictiers and thus was the six thousand Switzers pretended to be raised for defence of the Protestants against the Duke of Alva that was indeed for their utter ruin the King and Queen Mother concluding that if the head were off The wickedness of the Duke of Alva the body would fall to the ground calme the winds and the billows will soon surcease their rage Now this bloody Duke of Alva carried himself against the Protestants in such an unhuman way that he permitted his Soldiers to ravish Virgins and one time at his Table boasted the Prince and Admirall and chief Protestants take Lyons Troys and Tholouse for their defence that besids privat Massacres and what the War had destroyed he had Caused to be put to death by the Hangman Eighteen Thousand in six years time And now the Protestants seeing so clear a Plot in the midst of Peace nay that under pretence of safety lurked ruin and Treacherie They prepare to defend themselves by force and stand on their own ground for their Lives and Estates because they see peace is the direct road to a murderous death resolving rather to die in field like men and Soldiers than be cut off by Plots Oh! that they had continued and never embrased Peace may all true Protestants say ere this History ends they therefore to the aforesaid purposes seize on three principall Towns Lyons Troyes and Tholuse The King of France as the usuall Custom is was then preparing for Meaux the King forced to a disorderly retreat from Meaux to Paris to solemnize the day af St. Michaell the Prince of Conde with five hundred Protestants approach Meaux the King and Queen Mother hearing thereof Retire with great disorder and fearfull hast to Pars with six thousand Switzers and other Horse and thus begins the second War being armed on all sides and a generall rising in the Land Now sundry particulars which happened in this second War for our better proceeding in this Tragicall History and for our present purpose must only be touched at carrying along with us the most observable deeds The King sends to the Prince of Conde and Admirall for a more clear understanding of the whole business that we may go on in som order till we come to the rest The second War thus beginning the King sent an Herald to the Protestants whom the Prince and Admirall received in behalf of the rest to whose message they return this Answer That they were resolved to continue the Kings good subjects and what they did was for the defence of their religion liberty granted by the Edict which the King by Oaths had promised faithfully to keep that they desired nothing more then the security of their Lives and Estates in A peaceable enjoyment of the liberty of their Consciences which might the better enable them to be the more firmly fixt in obedience to his Majesties Command The heads of both sides meet and treats but to no purpose But if they should disband it were the most compendious way to their assured Ruin and a plaine laying of their necks to the block and so offer their throats be to be cut by their merciless enemies the Kingdome being full of Swisses Flemings Italians and Germans Hereupon the heads of both parties meet at St. Denis the Constable desires the Prince and Admirall to relie on the Kings word of whose performance he hoped they need not doubt to what ever he promised Oh! that the poor protestants had found is so then had not forty thousand Innocent souls been slain basely and murthered treacherously The Prince and Admiralls noble answer to the constalle To this answer was returned that it was not now time to trust in the Kings word which how little it was kept was too visibly to be read in the bloody effects of the constant breach thereof An Edict being made and sworn to by the King was by the same King violated which was a manifest signe of treachery and perjurie and so perfidious The Prince and Admiralls noble answer to the Constable as few christian Kings would signe to so that they could no more depend upon the Kings word which had hitherto been a snare a sure trap to catch them in and truly they that run may read that all along this sad History the poore Protestants were never und on but when they took the Kings word which indeed at all times proved but the umbrage or shadow of a promise The Protestants never embraced their ruin but when they trusted to the Kings word in a peace being alwayes made with a resolution never to be kept which at last proved a faithfull paslage to their utter ruin so that now this meeting brought nothing conducing to peace for it is certaine that in such a short tract of time I could never yet hear or read of such a constant practise of covenant breaking which all along in this Kings reigne was so often practised as if it had been reckoned amongst their meritorious works as if there were not a God to punish perjurie or treachery And now the Protestants lay their Army down before Pâ—â—is and shortly after both Armies meet and on the tenth of November gave battle and the Protestants received the worst by reason de Andelot came not into the Princes assistance till midnight The two Armies give Battle after the battle therefore next day they enter the field with their Army shew themselves in battalia ready to fight the enemie and so standing some houses before the great citty of Paris they bury their dead the Constable slain cure
parrallelled CHAP. VI. The Contents THe Queen and Prince of Navar with the Prince of Conde comes to Court the Articles of the War of the Low Countries put in writing the Mariage between the Lady Margarite and Prince of Navar agreed on the King heaps honours on the Admirall and friends the King invites the Admiral to Court and protests his own life is envelloped in his a cross in derision of the Protestants is pulled down by his Majesties command the Plot almost discovered by a lively instance the King threatens severe punishment to any that shall affront the Admirall or Protestants the Admiral comes to Court and welcomed the King allowes 50. for his Guard the Count Lodowick of Nassaw enters the Low Countries and takes in Montz A league offensive and defensive with Queen Elizabeth of England but proved a deep plot the Queen of Navar poisoned by the Kings Apothecary by whose death the Prince is King of Navar the joyful and bloody mariage of the King of Navar and the Lady Margarite the Kings plot to take Rochel the names of the Protestants in Lyons is taken in a bloody Book sad complaints commeth to the Admiral and great suspition of a bloody Massacre at hand but he believed it not the Admiral from a Window shot in both Arms with a Harquebuzier as he walked in Paris the King in great rage dissembles his treachery but publishes his hypocrisie by a shew of grief and discontent he that shot the Admiral escapes having fresh horses waiting for him the Admiral shews himself a true Christian and patient sufferer the matter examined by Judges and the Issue he that shot the Admiral had commission from the King for it the Admiral like to dy requests the Kings visit the King and Queen Mother with many Attendants perform his request they profess sorrow and dissemble wonderfully the King and Admiral discourse alone the Admiral commits his injuries to the Lord the King intreats the Admiral to lodge in the Loure the Admiral refuses a great suspition of Treason by a sudden speech of the Count de Retz in the Protestants hearing the Admiral requested a Guard for his person which the King grants the Admiral and Protestants advised of their ruin but they depended on the Kings promises carriages mariage and solemn Oaths for their security and safety THe last Chapter concluded with the great favours of the King to the Protestants whereby he had so won into their affections and to perswade them all he said was true and to embrace his cruelty for loyalty now in this chapter we shall see the effects of his desires accomplished for we shall behold all the Nobles of the Protestant Religion and Princes with the most of the Gentry environed in Paris by the Treacherous baits of the Kings allurements The Queen of Navar with her Son the Prince and the Prince of Conde with a numerous train of the Nobility Gentry of the Protestants all come to the Court with many brave Commanders But Oh! my heart bleeds to think of the bloody issue In the beginning of June the Queen of Navar and Connt Lodowick of Nassaw arrived at the French Court at Paris the Count came to receive orders about the War in the Low Countries the Queen of Navar was courteously invited by the King to help prepare all things fitting for the Wedding who to that purpose came and was received with a joyful welcome both of the King and whole Court but as now we see their faces smiling with a good aspect so we shall shortly see their hearts full of poison Two daies after arrives the Prince of Navar the Prince of Conde accompanied with the Count de Rochfoucault with all the Trains of the Princes being the chief Commanders Cavalliers and Gentlemen of the Religion amongst which was brave Pilles Briquemault and Pluveault Collonels and resolute Souldiers who in time of the War through their undaunted and resolute valour for the Protestant cause may challenge a right of honour amongst the prime in France their courage being such as their Enemies yielded to them much glory and renown as well as felt the power thereof Amongst the rest also came to Court that famous Commander the Sicur de Guerchy that defended the City Sancere where all miseries were endured and their enemies cruel mercy a place which was driven to such extream wants as no filthy thing was left unfed upon also came the Marquess de Revel the Sieurs de Nove de Collumbiere one Lavardin a famous Commander of Horse with many Noble Lords and gallant young Gentlemen all Protestants in the Bud of their years with a great many more â—f quality and reputation but alas we shall see these poor innocent Gentlemen basely murthered by the Kings command and so deprived of all that Gallantry which their sprightful valour promised to fill the World withal Articles of the Low Countrey war put in writing The Count of Nassaw had with the King concluded on Articles for the Low Country war which Articles were put in writing So that we may say the King used the Count and the Prince of Orange in this War as the Monky did the Cats foot to pull the Chessnuts out of the fire Articles of the mariage And now to the mariage of the Lady Margaret and Prince of Navar the agreement being made That the Prince of Navar should have with the Lady Margaret four hundred thousand Ducats whereof three hundred thousand should be paid by the King and security given by the Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou the mariage to be in the City of Paris and now Christian Reader the plot begins The King advances a Gentleman of the Admirals to high Honour his name Cavagnes a Gentleman of great Worth and really honorable in himself for excellent parts and no less valour whom the King The Admiral intreated by the K. to come to Court the better to work his Designs sends as Messenger to the Admiral to intreat his presence at Paris in order to honour the King and Court in this mariage as also to consult about the War against the King of Spain assuring him that the King intends his safety in that City as much as his own and that although the Parisians did cordially hate him by reason of their great superstition in that City being with seditious preaching of Moncks and Fryers dayly inflamed to cruelty and bloodshed against the Protestants yet his Majestie would take such care of his person as he should be as safe as the watchfull eye and command of a King would make him A stone Cross pulled down by the K. command at the Admiralls request The King finding a stone cross erected in Paris in a reproachful Triumph against the Protestants in time of the Civil Wars did at the request of the Admiral pul it down in regard it was a publick occasion of offence And thus the King and his Council were hid with the love-hood
aid of his great Wisdom and therefore was impatient of his delay The Admiral at last is now perswaded and resolved to go to Paris he comes and no sooner arrived but was very honourably and affectionately embraced with a courteous and joyful shew of welcome and so was speedily conducted to the King who under fair pretences of friendly ends with a mouth full of courtesy with well pleased words and a worse tuned heart with courteous expressions baited with Treason he calls the Admiral Father protesting That in all his life he had not enjoyed a day adorned with more variety of content thad this day was The Kings unheard of and devilish dissimulation wherein he assures himself than his real desires of peace and the success thereof shall for the time to come shelter under one Pent-house and lodge under the roof of a sweet tranquillity and that he hopes a period will be put to all his troubles not questioning but all as well as himself were no less glad in this expectation hoping that times to come would reap the future as the times now the present benefit of this blessed day wherein he wished and as much hoped that all former acts of civil dissentions should new be put in one grave of oblivion in remembrance of the sad war past and Commemoration of this Sunshine day present Now what a wonderful thing it is to consider that the King should so perfectly dissemble with one that had so often brought the power of his Crown and Kingdom to so many doubtful hazards as to call him Father and to make the World think his treachery to be sincerity The Queen Mother and her Sons with the rest of the great Courtiers received him with greater demonstrations of joy and love than the Admiral expected The King allows the Admirall 50. of his Friends to guard him The King also allowed him fifty Gentlemen to be about him in Paris armed for the greater security and guard of his person Now the King Queen Mother and Admiral falls on consultation about the Wars of the Low Countreys But however the King was in jest with the King of Spain yet the Count Lodowick of Nassaw was in good earnest who with a resolution according to his Manly spirit he enters the Frontiers of the Low Countries The Count of Nassaw enters the Low Countries and takes in Montz taking with him as Partners and assistants three French Gentlemen Saucourt La Nove and Genlis men of great esteem and account with the Admiral besides many Gentlemen that they gathered to go along in the Expedition which the Admiral hearing advised the Count not to be too rash well assuring him that such strength as was requisite would take forty days to gather but the Count as banished men are being enflamed with the sight and desire of his own Country and desirous not to depend too much on the Kings changeable mind suddenly resolved and as speedily attempted to take in Valentiennes but finding a repulse speedily hasted to Montz and though strong by nature and Art yet took it which comming to the ears of the Court of France and the whole nation did the more confirm the Protestants that the Kings mind was real Now Genlis being from the Count to Paris related the whole progress of the War to the King desiring leave to raise certain bands of footmen and Horsemen to strengthen Montz which being quickly granted he as speedily raised four thousand foot and four hundred horse but in his Martch was set upon by the Duke of Alva and quite overthrown which was wrought by the treacherous advice of the Duke of Guise The treachery of the Duke of Guise by private intelligence to the Duke of Alvaâ— of all that was done which thing was very ill resented by the very Catholicks themselves because many of the Romish religion were flain in the business The King of France is afraid that his war in jest might make the King of Spain war in earnest These things troubled the King very much for fear his counsels might be disclosed to the King of Spain and so might occasion some quarrel to the breaking forth of a War yet he gave order to the Admiral to assist the Prince of Orange in Germany with as many horse and foot as he thought fit which was done and because moneys might be had for their pay the King called for the Treasurer and commanded him to deliver the Admiral so much money as he should desire commanding him that the receipt should not express the cause Great dissimulation by the K. but should run thus Paid such a Sum to the Admiral by the Kings Commandement which is for certain uses the King commands should not be written to which the King subscribes with his own hand the King wrote a Letter also to Monducet to use his best endravour for the release of those taken under the conduct of Genlis by the Duke of Alva To the full effecting of their desire A League with Q. Elizabeth of England and the first Article was the observation of the Edict but it proves a deep plot against the Protestants and ties the hands of the English from all assistance in their greatest need and extremity it was thought convenient to enter into League with Queen Elizabeth of England which the King committed to the Admiral which he did so diligently and industriously handle that by his elaborate pains in a speedy time By faith given by Embassadours sent and by Oaths it was confirmed concerning a further procuring of other Leagues as might most stand for the Low Country War and of those Leagues by the Admirals care the principal Condition was That the Liberty of Religion should be continued according to the Edict and that the King should most solemnly observe and keep his most sacred Oath and Promise so strictly made for Liberty to the Protestants according to the Edict of Pacification And now The Religious Q. of Navar poisoned by the K. Apothecary a sad presage of further treachery Courteous Reader I must give thee a sad Tast of what follows like one of Jobs Messengers for the Queen of Navar being all this while at Court thinking of a joyful Mariage of her hopeful Son it pleased God to permit a sudden sickness and as sudden a death in the fourty third year of her age who being on too good grounds suspected to be poisoned was therefore opened by Physicâ—ans but they would find no figures of poyson but by more narrow search in earnest and by the advice of one A. P. it was found That her brain was poisoned with an invenomed smell of a pair of perfumed Gloves ordered by one Renat an Italian and the Kings Apothecary who kept a shop on St. Michaels bridge in Paris neer to the Palace And it is well known that the same Renat some certain years ago gave a pair of poisoned Pomander Gloves to Lewis Prince of Conde which the Prince
them all in a most cruel manner For thirty days nothing but killing of poor innocent Protestants The Copy of the Kings letters laying the fault of the Admirals death and the murthers on the D. of Guise yet the same day sends Letters to command it to be done and caused all the murthers to be done by his comand both in Paris and all over France The King in Parliament opens his design and acknowledges all to be done by his own command The Kings Speech in Parliament The true Copy of the K. Declaration printed at Paris The President of Parlament congratulates the King for his bloody success The Advocate advises the King to cease the murthers and to colour his crueltits with the name of Justice A Parliament is called and Proclamation is made that all murthers should cease Many gòes to view the body of the Admiral hanging on the common Gallowes The King and Queen Mother goes also but his body over night was secretly taken away and buried so they lost their journey Judges pickt out to condemn the innocent with the pretence of Justice The Admiral dishonoured by a man of straw and Libels printed The King sends to surprize the Admiralls wife but she was fled to Geneva The Admiral a little described Brave Caviagnes and Briquemault tortured to confess themselvs and the Admiral Traytors they shew much Christianity the Judges refuse to sit in judgement against them new Iudges are chosen they are condemned and led to the Gallows their Speech they are hanged in sight of King Q. Mother Prince and Nobles with many thousand Spectators The Man of Straw for the Admiral hanged with them Some Letters collected according to the Original which gives much light to the History and discovers how Queen Elizabeth of England resented the Murther with the General pitty and Dislike of the whole English Court. These cruelties spotted the French Nation with a great Odium among Forein Princes The Duke of Guise his Letter to his Wife intercepted and the Plot discovered The King notwithstanding his former Edicts granted and Oaths to keep his Promises does now proclaim that none should exercise any Religion on pain of Death but the Romish A form of Abjuration sent to those that would come in and forsake the Protestant Religion and when they did they were murthered contrary to the Kings proclamation A true Copy of the Remembrances of the King to all his Lieutenants and Governours of his Provinces with a Copy also for Abjuration NOw when all was murthered that could very well be laid hands on and the King understanding that divers Protestants had in many parts of the Kingdom fled and left their Habitations for security of their Lives He acts the second and worst part of his Devilish Treachery and cruelty for after many sweet baits of inticing and alluring promises for them to come in he at last published Letters and sent Messengers Wherein he shewed The great grief it was to him that so much blood should be spilt in the Nation contrary to his will promising to punish the Actors of such horrid villainies with as much crueltie as Justice could inflict and they deserve And that if the Admiral and his Associates deserved the death inflicted for their treasonable practices yet was it no reason so many innocents should bear part of this punishment that had no hand in the Plot. Now many poor Protestants that had left all and fled into the woods being encouraged by these inticing and fair pretexts returned home especially they that had fled from Diep Roan and Tholouse now we shall see the King like a Thorny Bush to the poor sheep that in a storm they run to shelter and instead thereof are intangled and their wool pull'd off their backs But oh wretched Tyrant and worse King whose furious and bloody mind like an impetuous Whirlewind or Hiricane could not be kept in bounds but ere two daies past he imprisons them all and appoints base fellowes to murther them with cruel Torments And thus for thirty daies together was nothing but horrible slaughter throughout the Kingdom of France insomuch that there were about a hundred thousand little Babes Widdowes and children wel-born that fatherless and Motherless lived long in wandering and beggary And truly that reverend and faithful Servant of Christ did not miss the Mark of the Kings treachery and perfidious dealing when he made this Anagram on his name CHARLES VALOIS Anagram Chasseur desloyall i. e. Perfidious Hunter or Persecutor In this calamity many that would have saved their lives among their own friends could not have the favour nay their own parents refused them others betrayed by their friends and yet it pleased God to move the hearts of some of their Enemies by their high detesting these cruelties and villainies insomuch as they hazarded their own lives to save some of the Protestants Was ever such unheard of cruelties permitted and commanded by any Christian King and Court with such delight of shedding Protestant blood We may say of the French nation as the case here stood as the poor Indian said of the Spaniards The story stands recorded thus A Prince of the Indians being so far wrought upon as to receive baptism at the hands of a Fryer he first questioned whether the souls of such as were baptized went Answer was returned To Heaven then saies he whether must they go too that are not baptized They answer To Hell but he further demanded To which of these two places the Spaniards went Answer is returned To heaven then said the Indian Let me go to Hell if the Spaniards go to Heaven for I cannot believe heaven to be a good place that is a reward for such bloody Butchers and Masters of such unheard of cruelties May we not say so of this sad Massacre of France but I leave the application to the judicial reader The King now fearing the Dishonour of falsehood treachery and perjury and that it might not fix any reproachful blot or stain on the Kings name This King at the same time that he sends Letters through France giving in command to cut off and destroy the Protestants the same King with the same hand and at the same time sends Letters to the Governours of his Provinces wherein he lets the world know that the late mischief in Paris had to his great sorrow hapned by means of the Duke of Guise who having raised the people they tumultuously broke through the Guard which he had appointed for the Admirals safety and with great Fury killed the Admiral and his Friends and that he with the Queen Mother and Brethren were through the danger of a furious multitude forced to retreat for safety to the Lour all which he said was against his mind and will and therefore he desired the Edict of Pacification to be kept inviolable The like Letters he writ to England Switzerland and Germany which because they bear one tenure and pen'd after one manner I have to avoid prolixity
in large volumes now it is reduced and fitted to the time and purses of those that had no occasion and less abilities to accomplish the perusal or purchasing of large Folio's which I think was the grand reason of stifling the knowledge hereof to many of this age Reader thou art here presented with the most horrid Rapes Murthers Perjury and Treacherous Cruelty of a Prince and Court that ever landed on European shore for in few daies all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry with Ladies and innocent Gentlewomen and children to the number of fourty thousand were inhumanely butchered and cut off by the Kings special Commandment Here thou mayest see a Prince besmearing himself with the Goar blood of his own Subjects and at last wallowing in his own we shall here see Religious Vows and Promises no stronger ties to the King and Court than a Rope of sand to a wild beast being gone so far in perjury that the Kings faith was accounted like the Greeks whose unfaithfulness to their promises is become Proverbial that when one would express perjury they termed it Greca fides for though a Creditor had ten bonds and as many Sureties and Seals yet will he find it extreme hard to accomplish his debt so when a Jew is to deal with a Genoa he puts his finger in his eye fearing his Treachery They resolve to have no other virtue rampant than perjury and cruelty Abandoning that part of Religion which ties to a strict observance of Duty Omnia Religiosa nunc ridentur they will wade no further in Religion than may serve their cruel ends insomuch that in one Town which the Protestants kept they engraved on the gate this Motto Roy sans foy ville sans peur the King had no faith nor they no fear And as the Roman Emperor Caligula said of Seneca's Works they were Arena sine calce sand without lime having no connexion so was the King of France his Solemn Oaths and Promises It is a Christian accomplishment in Princes to govern non per timorem sed per amorem as it is said of Octavus Augustus And when any judgment befalls this Nation let them remember that as they made it an Acheldema or Field of Blood so will God the place of his Plagues for who knowes not that the Blood of so many thousand souls crys to heaven for vengeance upon the third and fourth Generation and I could wish that all Protestant Princes would beware how they shake hands with such faithless People Now the right use of these sad and sudden murthers should be to learn us the necessity of being ready prepared for such violent deaths and that prosperity is as diet to us Adversity as Physick reducing to a right tast of these mortal enjoyments How happy will the Torments of cruelty be when our cyes are fixed by faith on an Eternal inheritance linking our selves in that golden Chain of Salvation which extends from Eternity to Eternity Death comes not unexpected when a soul is interessed in Christ our Saviour how necessary is it for us to live ready to dy He that too closely hugs transitories makes a rent in his constancy and a greater in his soul How can a Christians Judgement but be at nonage when he values not the true worth of Celestials but puts them in the ballance with Terrene things He indeed hath found the Philosophers stone that can turn all events into a Subjection to Gods Will. It was the gratious words of Holy Greenham having food and rayment let us take the rest as an overplus these poor Souls had no other warning peice to dy than sudden and violent deaths that like the flying fish reported to be in great hazzard by the Shark and Dolphin in the Sea yet when advanced into the air to escape he is by Birds of prey in no less danger so were these poor Saints of God in War hazardous in Peace undone What shall we say of that Religion which perjury cruelty blood and the greatest cruelties are reckoned as virtuous Jewels in the Crown of their Government they are sweet when seasonable and parallel to their murtherous Hearts and it must needs presage ruin to that Nation that stands on no other Pillars for their foundation than bloody and infamous Plots and Treachery who will not conclude that Nation lies level to justice and I wish the large field of Liberty allowed the Papists in England to walk in may not insensably grow our inavoidable and swift ruin since it is well known by all how they wait for our destruction But to contract let me intrea◠〈…〉 my sincere and publick intentions which is all I adopt to be mine and that ex abundanti amoris out of the surplusage of Love thou wilt waft my Endeavours to the Haven of thy kind embraces where I cast Anchor and rest Reader these Books following are printed for and are to be sold by Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible neer Py-Corner THe General Practice of Physick Folio Drummonds Hist of 5. Kings of Scotl. fol. The Fortune Book in fol. English Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot Fol. Mr Collings Cordials 1st 2d 3d. part quarto His Vindiciae Ministerii quarto His answer to Mr Sheppard quarto His answer to Fisher and Hammond quarto His answer to Boatman Prin Humfries qua Dr Holdsworths one and twenty Sermons quar Euclides Elements in quarto Eng. History of seven Champions quarro Packet of Letters quarto Cupids Messengers quarto The birth of Mankind or Womens book quar The perfect Pharisee under Monkish holines qu. The false Jew quarto Mr Collings 5 lessons for a Christian to learn 8. His Faith and Experience octavo Mr Wincolls Poems octava Excellency of Christ octavo Erasmus Colloquies octavo Wings and Libourns Urania Practica octavo Velitationes Polemicae octavo Janua Linguarum octavo Brinsley's Cordelius octavo Mr Sidenham's Mystery of Godliness octavo Mr Sidenham's hypocrisie discoved octavo Paul Hobson's last book of Queries octavo Watson's untaught Bridegroom twelves Place this fol i Men quartered Aliue Roasted on a spit Rauishing woomen Burning men Aliue Beating mens Braines out Ripping vp woomen w th Child Cutting Throats 300 protestants Murthered in a Church Stabbing with daggers Men Cutt in peeces The Civil Wars of France CHAP. I. The Contents THe Reign of Charls the ninth A Parliament called the Government committed to the Queen Mother during the Kings minority the names of Hugonet and Papist forbid on pain of death Prince of Conde and King of Navar in discontent departs the Court the King of Nevar made Lieutenant General and joyntly interessed in the Government with the Queen Mother the Princes desire a Toleration of Religion for the Protestants which is privately granted the Protestants multiply and the Princes protect them demanding the Queens promise for Toleration the Protestants that were in Prison for Religion freed by a Decree of the Council the Duke of Guise surrenders the Keys of the Palaces
unsufferable injuries and cruel murthers were dayly heaped and committed upon the poor Protestants even to the loss of the Estates and Lives of many of their dear friends which opposition was the greater being done by the Kings Liberty granted contrary to Articles of peace and Edict of Pacification promised by Oaths and Covenants therefore though they dayly waited yet now they saw no other way but to arm in their own defence which was the least they could do being tyed by the laws of God and Nature to preserve their Religion Lives and Estates of themselves with their poor wives children and families that else would be left to the power and rage of bloody and deceitful men and that this was their only design of taking arms And further did declare that if they could espy and other way to enjoy their Estates Liberty and Lives they would speedily lay down their arms yet notwithstanding they desired and resolved to continue his Majesties faithful Subjects in obedience to all lawful commands wishing a period to their lives the same moment their obedience ceased if they could but herein see security for enjoyment of their Religion and Lives The Q. of Navars noble Declaration in behalf of the protestants At the same time the Queen of Navar with some dashes of her illustrious pen and a full Testimony of a Christian Resolution does by Letters declare That she could do no less than joyn with the Prince of Conde and Protestants which with the life of her self and children as also the miserable Reliques of the Kingdom of Navar The Cardinal of Lorrain on the one hand and Spaniards on the other did jointly indeavour by force and policy to destroy which was so discernable that all the world was witness to her injuries And indeed this Noble Queen The Q. of Navars high merits in part described would be ecclipsed of her due value by the draught of my rude pen the highest Encomiums will but stain her virtues but to a little belief of her high deserts know only this That her enemies confessed her virtues and Christian valour to exceed the very applause of her Friendly admirers and therefore her deserts was concluded as much undeniable to them as unspeakable by her friends Thus the very beginning of this pretended peace ends in a third Civil War whose effects was as bloody as sharp and at last we shall speedily see in a Tragical Massacre of many thousand Protestants of all degrees and sexes so securely were the Protestants lull'd asleep in their too credulous opinion of the King and Court Now in this Cabinet Council of the Kings was Charls Cardinal of Lorrain The King publishes a bloody Edict that no Religion should be exercised but the Romish on pain of death which cuts off all former promises and Edicts as if they had never been made to be kept Brother to the Duke of Guise a man of a most crafty and terrible nature insomuch that at Rome he was no less reputed for he was a bitter enemy to the Protestants and for the cruelty of his nature was termed the Firebrand of all Civil Flames whose hands being deep in the blood of the Protestants For by his means and the willing mind of the King and bloody Council was published an Edict in his Majesties name levelling the famous Edict of January and enjoyning That none should profess any Religion but the Romish and that it was treason to embrace any other requiring upon pain of death a general conformity to the Catholick Religion Which bloody Edict was accordingly published whereupon all the Protestant Ministers were banished all places of the Kingdom which were in the Kings power The King declares he meant not what be said Oh deep deceit And that the King may stand amazed at this deep hypocrisie this following Sentence was expressed in this Edict printed at Paris And it was further then declared that albeit the King had in many Edicts before that time permitted the freedom of Religion yet his meaning was to retain and cause to be retained of all men the only Romish or Popish Religion within his Realm Which Edict and clause being so wonderfully strange to all that heard or saw it and because it stained the Kings name with the most horrid spot of perjury and breach of faith it was therefore in other impressions afterward printed purposely omitted in the Edict This Edict was published with an incredible confluence of all sorts of Catholicks and received with the highest celebrations of joy as can be imagined and the rather because the Catholicks much doubted of the Queen Mothers intentions in regard of her dissembling carriage to the Protestants and now all was put out of doubt by this Edict Which clearly demonstrates that the King and Queen Mothers intentions all along was to destroy the Protestants root and branch only took their best opportunity to effect their desires with the least noise of suspicion and greatest security to drive the nail home to the head and their bloody Swords to the hearts of the most innocent souls And thus begins strong preparations for a third Civil War for Religion the sad effects whereof we shall peruse in the next chapter CHAP. V. The Contents THe Protestants gallant Resolutions Both parties arm Queen Elizabeth aids the Protestants The protestants take several towns the Armies face one another but ingage not the Battel at Brisac where the Prince of Conde is slain the Prince of Navar and Prince of Conde chosen Generalls of the protestant Army the Admirall and whole Army swears subjection to these two young Princes the Queen of Navar coins money to pay the protestant Army the Princes and Admiral draw their Army into Garrisons the Kings army sits down before Cognac but are valiantly repulsed they take Mucidan put all to the Sword but lost Count Brisac the Duke Deux Pont with 14. thousand marches to join with the Princes but dies himself by the way The Pope sends Forces to ayd the King Both armies engage the Kings Army retires to Garrisons the Princes take in Chastelrault and Lusignan Town and Castle they lay siege to the great City Poictiers the Kings forces besiege La Charite but leave it after the loss of many brave Gentlemen and Commanders the Duke of Anjou besieges Chastelrault but after great loss leaves it the young Duke of Guise advances to Court and his Fathers place at once the Cabinet Council meets the Armies ingage in a bloody Battel the Kings Army besieges Angeli but receives a gallant shock of a resolute defence by that brave Commander Monsieur de Pilles and at last yielded honourably the Kings Army disbands the protestants increase and are Masters of the field The King summons his forces together and gives the command to Marshall de Coss the King Queen Mother and Cabinet Council plot to linck a peace and the Protestants ruin together the protestants at all times willing to embrace a peace the end
short and send his Kingdom amongst us Sept. 27. Tho. Smith In a Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham page 264. We have understood by report from Roan that on Thursday was seven-night there was a general slaughter made of all that could be imagined Protestants so as the very Channels of the Streets did run with blood Sept. 25. 1572. W. Burleigh In a Letter to the Lord of Burleigh page 269. Doth well enough discern that he late cruelty here executed is void of all manner of Just defence and therefore in Gods just judgement is like to receive just punishment and if the same do not happen so soon as we desire our sins is the let They here are so far imbrued in blood as there is no end of their cruelty for no Town escapeth where any of the Religion are found with General murthering and sacking of them and yet they protest all this to be done against their Will though it be evidently known it is done by their Commandment This manner of proceeding seemeth to all men so strange as no man can tell what to judge of it openly no man dare but commend it privately few are found that do not utterly detest it Paris 8. Octo. 1572. F. Walsingham In a Letter to the Earl of Liecester page 282. Generally all men do cry out and say That the Liberty of France is lost yea and some the most vehement Catholicks do wish both themselves and that they have out of this Countrey c. What will be the issue of these Tragical doings here God only knoweth but generally every man feareth that all will go to ruin Paris 1. of Nov. 1572. F. Walsingham In a Letter of Sir Francis Walsingham page 304. I further shewed him the redoubling of her Majesties grief as well to see such as by no means could be privy to any conspiracy given up even to the vile and base people whose execution was without respect of age or sex in a most barbarous sort as also to see those that are alive forced by Edicts lately set forth either to abjure their Religion to fly or else to be murthered a kind of proceeding which sheweth that his meaning is to root out all the Professors of the Gospel within his Realm Paris 25. of Decem. 1572. F. Walsingham Now we may see how things were resented by blessed Queen Elizabeth how at first the King by his Ambassadour would perswade her to believe that he had reason for what he did although he desired to excuse it by necessity Many other things of high concernment is couch't in those excellent Letters worthy serious perusal at large Now although the King did declare it to the world that he intended not to break the Edict of Pacification but that liberty should be granted to their Persons yet the all-seeing God discovered their deeds of darkness in the day-light and that the King only deceived the World with his wonted Hypocrisie which will plainly appear by the tenure of a Letter intercepted from the Duke of Guise at the Court in Council being written from Paris to his Wife the same day that noble Briquemault was ignobly hanged the words were these The King hath decreed in Council utterly to root out this seditious vermin of the New Religion And thus this King and Court washed their bloody and crimson hands in the blood of the Protestants And that the World might see that effected which he so often publickly proclaimed was never intended his heart and his tongue being not Confederates shewing himselt now perjured to purpose he causes to be proclaimed That those that had any charge in the Nation should for sake their Religion and their Places insomuch that there was no small village but the poor Protestants were compelled to hear Mass or speedily perish by the Sword and yet so basely bloody and murtherous did the French Nation shew themselves at this time that even those that through a sudden fear embraced by temptation a sad Apostacy abjuring the Protestant Religion yet were presently murthered The Remembrances of the King sent to all Governours of Provinces and also the form of Abjuration I have here inserted according to the Original Copy that the world may see the perjury of a faithless King Remembrances sent by the King to all Governours and Lieutenants of his Provinces to put out and remove all those of the RELIGION from their Estates and Charges although they would abjure the same saving such as have but smal Estates and Offices to whom his Majesty permitted continuance on condition that they abjure the said Religion according to the Form of Abjuration sent for that purpose THe King considering how much his Officers and Majestrates of Justice and such as have the Administration and dealing of his fines and payments which be of the New Religion are suspect and hated and put his Catholick Subjects in great mistrust if they should presently exercise their Offices after these fresh commotions Therefore least the people should thereby be brought to a new occasion of stir and they of the new Religion be in danger and hazard of their own persons although they would abjure their said new Religion and profess the Holy faith and Catholick Religion of Rome His Majesty desiring to avoid the new mischiefs and troubles which may come hath advised to discharge the said Officers from the exercise of the said Offices untill he shall otherwise appoint And yet nevertheless in the mean while if the said Officers be obedient unto his will and live quietly in their Houses without attempting practising or taking any thing in hand against his Service they shall receive their wages and they that will resign their said Offices to Catholick persons and come to his Majestie shall be honourably provided for And as touching other small Offices without wages which cannot be troublesome as Notaries Sergeants and such where the Officers have none Authority which cannot be so odious nor mistrustful to the people as the other His Majesty is advised that such small Officers which will abjure the said New Religion and confess the faith Catholick Apostolick and Romish and therein live continually hereafter shall continue in the exercise and enjoying of their estates but they that will continue in their new opinion shall depart from their Offices until his Majestie have otherwise provided And this is for the great mischief and inconvenience that may betide them if they should exercise their said Estates because of the great mistrust and suspition which the Catholicks have conceived of them of the new Religion Nevertheless his Majesty well considering that the most part of the said Officers have none other way to live but the exercise of their said Offices willeth that they shall be in choice to resign to Catholike and capable persons and then to come to him for that effect and he will grant them the greatest favour and moderation of his Treasury that is possible The which resolution and pleasure of his Majesty he willeth