See the form was ordained which the inquisitors were to observe in the expunging of Heresie The substance whereof was That they should proceed with all rigor in seeking out those who were infected with Heresie and in punishing them according to the penalties appointed the execution whereof was committed to the Magistrates of Cities and to the Provincial Councels with provision to be had that no particular Tribunals should be introduced for the inquisition as it was formed and as for the new Erection of Bishopricks it was carried as hath been said in the relation The King having ordered matters of Religion thus declared that for all things else the former ancient Government should be continued wherein next unto the Regent the Councel of State should have the first place of which were many of the chief Lords of Flanders and because it was impossible to confide in them all therefore the King gave private instructions that the Regent in matters of greatest jealousies and weight should abridge the number to a few and intrust the chief managing thereof in the hands of the Bishop of Arras whom to this purpose he left with her Before the King went from Gaunt he would make a new creation of Knights of the golden Fleece in the places of many that were dead And amongst others he honoured some Lords of that Country with that Order whose Ancestors had formerly been thereof Finally the King preparing for his journey and being desirous first to give such instructions to the Dutchesse of Parma as were most convenient for the administration of Government he took her one day aside and as it is reported said thus unto her I could not give you a greater testimony my beloved Sister of my confidence in you then that which I have now deposited into your hands in assigning over unto you the Government of these Provinces of Flanders You see their situation by how much they are the more remote from my other Kingdoms so much the neerer are they to be endangered by the States which do inviron them T is true France is now at peace with me but 't is not so within it self being full of Factions and in the hands of a childe who instead of giving Lawes will be enforc'd to receive them to boote that the emulation which hath alwayes been and ever will be between France and Spain is too much known The Queen of England who Oppugnes the Religion which I defend will alwayes be plotting to the prejudice of my forces particularly those of Flanders the same suspitions almost out of the same reasons may be had of the Heretick Princes of the neighbouring parts of Germany As also for the spite they bear to see the Empire continue so long in my blood These neighbours will still be practising some innovations here And the most dangerous business which can be apprehended from them will be their infecting the People with Heresie and the making the Nobility upon such occasions aspire to Novelties They will then endeavour to incite the vulgar people to madness by the poison of false opinions and to withdraw them by degrees from liberty to licenciousness from licenciousness to tumults and from tumults to Rebellion And without doubt the introducing of Heresie being permitted these other evils will consequently follow True piety and falie cannot cohabit together And when people begin once to differ in their beliefe the great ones break forth presently into Novelties and by a thousand false pretentions turn Religion into Faction Miserable effects are seen hereof in Germany and no lesse miserable are already begun in France Therefore to preserve Flanders from so dangerous evils care must be had above all things to keep her free from Heresie and that only the Catholike Religion be practised there Which is the true and ancient Religion and which alone is profest in my other Kingdoms From hence doth my Family acknowledge her chiefest greatness and by the means thereof as Subjects are more united within themselves in the worship of the Altars and Temples so are they by her means also the closer tyed together in obedience to their Princes and Magistrates So as I by defending and sustaining of her am by her defended and sustained And rendring hereby the greatest service that I can to God I do consequently the greatest advantage I can to my Crown I go from hence therefore resolved that the Edicts published against the Hereticks in these Provinces be inviolably executed wherein I shall desire you to use your greatest vigilancy and to be sure that your sence be the same that mine is which is not notwithstanding that a setled Inquisition be introduced here I see the differences between these Provinces and those which have received it But on the other side the greatest evils require the strongest remedies To boot that this doth not oppose the priviledges of the Provinces nor the form of that Government which I have promised and sworn unto Nay to tollerate the introducing of heresie would be the greatest violation thereof I could commit Since hitherto it hath wholly been grounded upon the Catholick Religion and all things would be disturbed and quite overthrown if I should give any allowance to the bringing in of heresie When this danger shall be provided for it will make the remedy the easier for the other which may arise from some peccant humour of ambition in some of the great ones Ambition usually seeks out pretences so as course must be taken that no such be found Of all other pretensions that of conscience is the most specious and they who plot most against the common good seem by this way to be most zealous in procuring it Let this so plausible occasion be taken away the other which may move the people to commotions will the more easily cease You my sister very well know the humours of the people of Flanders and how they ought to be govern'd They are born almost as much to liberty as to subjection He that commands must entreat and oft-times must yield instead of obtaining To such natures 't is fit to adjust a proportionate Government You must therefore use all possible diligence in maintaining the accustomed Priviledges and Immunities of the Country and endeavour to satisfie the people in them they being almost wholly constituted in their power The common people live peaceably when at ease and quiet and 't is little to be feared that the ambitious can either discompose them by hidden fraud or grow more bold by open conspiracy to move them to commotion and yet you must by all means endeavour to keep the Nobility devout to my service by particularly giving them their due imployments their due respects and by assuring them that they shall always see my father supervive in me in favouring and protecting them Thus it may be hoped that affairs may here succeed happily and that none of the great ones instead of expecting honours and favours from me will provoke me to rigour and severity But
foot There is in Roan a great and valiant Garison and the Citizens though not accustomed to Arms are yet ready upon all occasions to take them up Wherefore then say I again shall we expect a double assault of such Forces between weak and distant works and where our horse which do so far exceed those of the enemy shall not have those advantages which they may have in the field I therefore advise by all means to give the enemy battel in the field It hath formerly been seen that the Duke of Parma hath always shun'd it He will certainly be now of the same opinion And why should not we be as forward to provoke him to battel as he is backward thereunto his foot may be thought somewhat the better but our horse are almost twice as good as his and may so advantegiously spread themselves in these spacious fields of Normandy as the Flemish may oft-times have reason to wish themselves within those Dikes Ditches and Channels which are so frequent in those Countries Hence it is that sieges are there so much used And what greater glory can we have then to see battels more frequent here Where true Military force and worth is manifested on the bright Theatre of the day not amidst blind Trenches and buried Mines and base fighting in ditches but in open field between Squadron and Squadrons between Colours and Colours both of Foot and Horse orderly drawn out For what remains the former reasons will be equally valid now When your Majesty shall once have won the battel the war will soon be at an end And say that any misfortune should befall you you may without much difficulty gather new forces and take the field again But it may assuredly be hoped that the misfortune of the war or to say better the punishment of Justice will fall upon your Enemies who joyned together by the true reason of Interest and the false pretences of Religion imbrace the wickedest and most unworthy Cause that was ever at any time imbraced and defended These two opinions being duly weighed the King on the one behalf thought that the Siege being so far advanced was not to be abandoned and on the other side he thought he did so far exceed the Enemy in Horse as he might spare a considerable strength thereof to go against the Enemy and so infest them as that they should either not be able to advance or atleast too late to relieve the Town But the event shewed that the not wholly adhering to either the one or the other advice made them both prove unfortunate The King having taken the abovesaid resolution resolved to go himself in person with 5000 Horse to encounter the Army of the League and the mean while left the Marshal of Byroun with all the rest of his Forces who should continue to straiten Roan as much as he could With these people the King went first to Chasteauneufe and then to Aumaile Towns which confine upon the Provinces of Normandy and Picardy He was not well got out of Normandy when he was advertised by his Scouts that the Enemy were well advanced into Picardy The Army of the League marched in the same manner as by the Duke of Parma's orders it had done the time before The Foot were placed in the midst the Horse with long wings in the Flanks and the Garriages on both sides without Monsieur de la Motte together with his place of Generall of the Artillery was Campmaster Generall of all the Flanders Souldiers and the same office was discharged in the proper Forces of the League by Monsieur Rony a valiant Souldier and great Commander and who had a particular dependencie upon the Duke du Mayn Each of them were very carefull in keeping the whole Camp in order and in securing their quarters and yet the Dukes of Parma and of Mayn ceased not to be every where in their own persons The Vantguard was led on by the young Duke of Guise who had with him two French-men of experienced valour the Baron of Scatres and Monfieur de Vitry In the Battel were the Dukes of Parma and Mayn the Duke of Montemarchiano and Count Vaudemonte and the Rear guard was guided by the Duke du Male and Count Saligni Prince Ranucchio marched usually with the prime Horse in the Van and Marquis Vasto took his place most commonly there also who repenting his having given over his former place of Generall of the Horse in Flanders to command the Horse in the State of Milan being to that purpose gone the year before into Italy was now born by a desire of glory come to serve as a private Voluntier in the Duke of Parma's second expedition into France Ten peeces of Artillery did precede the Vantguard and from the Front thereof was thrust forth a flying Squadron composed of Spanish and Italian Foot who might be ready either to stand or charge the Enemy according as occasion on either sort should require The Army of the League made but short marches that they might the better keep their ranks fortifie their quarters the better and to keep their souldiers from being weary So as the Camp came not till the beginning of February near to Aumail where as was said the King of Navar was himself in person Here the Scouts of both Camps met to learn news but the King not very well satisfied with the tidings which his Scouts brought would be an eye-witness thereof himself The King was so naturally given to waging battel as oft-times wholly forgetting himself he would be present upon the most common occasions and would therein meet with the most frequent dangers as it now befell him and thus it was The King going out of Aumaile with 500 Horse gave order that the Baron Jury and Monsieur de Laverdein should follow him with more Horse and with 400 Dragoons and commanded likewise that the Dukes of Nevers and of Longneville should be ready with the rest of the Horse which were in Aumaile The King advancing further then he ought to have done with the first Horse fell upon the Scouts of the Enemies Camp which he easily routed and put to flight but George Basti coming in soon after with a great body of other Horse charged those of the King so home as the King himself was in apparent danger and so much the more for that his person was known by many tokens This danger forced the King to retreat which he did the hardlier for that the Enemy charging him still more the greater was the slaughter of his men The Enemy endeavoured all they could to cut off the Kings way on all sides and to take him prisoner He on the contrary sustaining their force with incredible courage endeavoured to bring himself as soon as he could into safety In this interim many of his stoutest men dropt by his side nor could the King himself scape unhurt for as he descended a little rise whilst he gave back he was shot with
great our devotions have alwayes been to your Majesties service in these parts we beleeve may be sufficiently known both by our so faithfull service to your Majestie and by those favours which in leiu thereof you have upon all occasions so graciously confer'd upon each of us The same zeal makes us now perhaps transgresse the rules of reverence that we may not prove faulty in those of Loyalty Your Majesty at your departure left the Government of these Provinces in the Dutchess of Parma so vertuous a Princess as she hath fully answered the applause of so worthy a choice It was beleeved that the Bishop of Arras now Cardinal was left with her to Councell and advise her and not to be Arbitrer in the Government but he arrogating unto himself the absolute disposall of all things and leaving nothing of Regent to the Dutchess but the bare name disposes of these Provinces as he would do of his own private house He orders all things as he pleases he handles and resolves the weightiest affairs without the knowledge of the Councell of State and doth this so imperiously and with such contempt of all the Nobility as the manner is more odious then the thing it self If the evils which insue from hence did terminate in our own private offences we might at last resolve to bear with them but experience doth shew daily more and more that this maladie is already become Publike and that not stopping in the Court it passes and breakes out into the Provinces with great danger that the effects will still prove worse As long as Cardinal Granville shall tarry in Flanders so long will these inconviencies and disorders increase and because they may perchance in time arrive at such a height that it will be too late to remove him from hence we therefore have thought it suited with the obligation which the Candor of our fidelitie and the condition of our severall imployments imposeth upon us to acquaint your Maiesty with what hath been said to the end that you may apply such remedy as is necessary which certainly consists in taking the Cardinal from Flanders as soon as may be Those who are here of the best sort and generally all the rest of the Provinces are of our opinion in which let not the Cardinal boast himself that he desires the integrity of the Catholike Religion more then we for we may rather justly glory that had it not been for us the worship thereof would have been much more damnified and diminished in them This was written in March 1563 those who writ it knew very well that the Cardinal did nothing but by express command from the King and therefore to blame him was thorough him to blame the King the King forbore from answering them some months and at last with such brevity and state as became a King he answered thus I am glad that I can attribute all that which you all three have written touching Cardinal Granville to the particular respect of my service I commend your zeal and am well pleased with your carriage But on the other side I do not use for any complaint made by others to bereave any Officer of mine of his imployment without hearing him speak for himself Moreover it is fitting in business of this nature to come from generalities to particular offences to the end that if the accused cannot justifie himself his punishment may be the greater But because these are things which peradventure may better be discust by word of mouth then by Letters I think it best that some one of you to that purpose come over to me in person with assurance of being here by me both willingly heard and honourably received Orange and the rest were much confused at this Letter they were not therewithall satisfied but being the more incensed they writ again unto the King a longer Letter complaining that after so long a delay the King seemed so much to slight their endeavours They said in that Letter That they had not subscribed themselves in their former Letter as the Cardinals accusers but as his Majesties Councellers and therefore bound to acquaint him with that which they conceiv'd made most for his service that they did not desire the Cardinal should be any wars damnified by their means but did rather wish him all encrease of honour and employment so as it were out of Flanders that his being in Flanders did too much harm for the reasons they had formerly alleadged which were so known as they needed no further proof For what remained they did not put so great a value upon the Cardinal as that any of them should come into Spain upon his score And since the King did so little believe them they desired he would be pleased that from hence-forward they might forbear coming to the Councel where they could no longer either serve the King or do themselves any honour This in short was the contents of the second Letter To which the King after a while did also answer to this effect That he would consider of what was best to be done concerning the Cardinals person that in the mean time they should continue to do him that service which he expected at their hands as well in the Councel as in their other employments for which they were to expect from him by way of recompence all gratefull acknowledgement There past little less then a whole year in the intercourse of these Letters but Orange Egmont and the rest continuing still their boldness and knowing that there was little good to be hoped for from Spain touching Granvilles removal from Flanders they resolved to put such scorn upon him and so to despise him as he himself should desire to be gone from thence They treated little with him they seldom appeared in Councel they termed such as adhered therein to him Cardinalists in their meetings at their feasts and almost at all times and in all places they mockt and laught at him and there wanted not some of them who affirmed that the speediest way of ridding Flanders of him was to rid him of his life So as the Cardinal being reduced to those terms as that he could not serve the King to any purpose in those parts nor stay there with safety to his own life he himself at last craved leave of the King to be gone Who agitated awhile between the necessity of granting his request and his own dignity in denying it resolved at last to give way thereunto since he could now put on no more vigorous resolutions But this injury remained notwithstanding deeply imprinted in his mind which he resented upon other occasions as we shall hereafter see The Cardinal Granville went then from Flanders in March 1564. and going first into Burgundy about his Domestical affairs he was afterwards sent for by the King with much honour into Spain and was there made one of the Councel of State and employed in the most weighty affairs of that Crown Many were of opinion
those that assailed them and came the better to where their help was required They also soon discerned that they were all false Alarms that were given without and that the true Assault was made only in one place To this was added that Count Bucquoy not finding the water of the aforesaid Channel so low as he believed he could by no means pass over them Yet the Catholicks did for a long time continue their assault but the Defendants advantages still increasing the Assailants were at last forced to give over with great loss for there were above 600 slain and wounded part of them being Gambaloita's men who was slain himself and part belonging to Durango who was sorely wounded Nor did those within let slip the occasion of prejudicing yet more the Catholicks as they retreated For plucking up some of their Sluces by which they both received the Sea-water into their ditches and let it out again they turned the water with such violence into the Channel which the Catholicks had passed over before they came to the assault and which they were to pass over again in their retreat as many of them were unfortunately drowned John Bentivoglio Knight of St. John's Order our Brother who was but a little before come from Italy after having served the Emperor some years in Hungary was in this action and therein gave such trial of himself as the Archdukes not long after honoured him with a Company of Lances The year 1602. was already begun and with so bitter cold weather as many advised the Archduke to give over the siege of Ostend as a business which might be despaired of But he would not be perswaded thereunto thinking the Kings honour and his own too much engaged not to continue that siege still and bring it to a good end Wherefore he resolved to raise a great Platform in St. Alberto's quarter which might command the Town as much as might be possible on that side and gave new orders that Bucquoy should from St. Charls his Fort advance with all possible speed that great Bank which was designed to command the Channel of Bredene as we touched upon before Having given out these directions and leaving the Spanish Campmaster John di Rivas a valiant and well experienced Souldier to have the chief government of the Siege the Archduke retired to Gaunt to make such provisions against the Enemy as were requisite who on their side made very great preparations that they might be early in the field with great Forces The Treaty of Agreement which had been formerly on foot and almost at the same time broken as we told you then between the King of Spain and the Archduke on the one part and the Queen of England on the other was this interim continued by many means Great desire of coming to some good correspondencie appeared on both sides And the Queen being now very full of years did particularly shew her self every day more and more inclined thereunto When in March she fell very sick of which sickness she dyed after she had lived 70 years and reigned 4â— Thus dyed Elizabeth Queen of England and Ireland who so much afflicted the Church and who so long and by so many wayes fomented the War which we describe She was Daughter to King Henry the Eighth by Queen Anne of Boloign After the death of her Father being bred up in Heresie she was much made of by her Brother King Edward the Sixth who was likewise a Follower of the new Sects which were formerly introduced by his Father But Queen Mary who soon restored the antient Religion succeeding him Elizabeth ran hazard of her life and was either imprisoned or confined all her Sisters Reign who dying without issue the Crown came to Elizabeth The marriage of her Father with Anne of Boloign was always detested by the Catholick Church wherefore she openly maintained Heresie and persecuted the Catholicks And to secure her self the better in her Kingdom she was not content to favour Heresie in her own Dominions but still joyned with the Heretical Factions of Scotland France Germany and Flanders endeavouring thus to keep her neighbouring Countries still in turmoils that she might be the more quiet at home For what remains it is not to be denyed that by Common opinion such gifts both of body and minde concur'd in her as would have been worthy of the highest praise had she so much illustrated them by the true Religion as she did eclipse them by false worship a comliness of Aspect graceful behaviour weight in her words or a winning speech and a pleasing greatness both in her private and publick actions She was endowed with a rare understanding and wit which made her be a great friend to learning to the choicest and most delightful whereof she applyed her self she was particularly so ready in the Latin tongue as she was often pleased publickly to make use thereof and therein to receive the applause of the most learned in both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge it may be no marriage was ever more coveted then hers Many Princes in several parts of Europe did for a long time strive to be her husband hoping that the refusal of the one might facilitate the pretences of another and she very cunningly still nourished hopes in them and endeavoured divers waies to honest her excuses thinking her self so much more worthy by how much the more she was pretended unto Coming at last to her declining years those seeming appearances ended and then it was clearly seen that she being full of haughty thoughts not caring for issue would never receive a Companion in her Bed because she could not admit of a Companion in her Throne She exercised her greatest enmities with the Pope of Rome and King of Spain as may have been seen in this our History she kept good correspondencie with all the other Potentates of Europe and was by the most of them continually much honoured She was a woman of a manlike spirit infinitely intent upon Government and desirous of retaining the chief hand in managing thereof as she had the prime authority Great were her expences both within and without her Kingdom It is not to be credited how much she spent at home especially in keeping England well munited with Naval forces being ofttimes used to say That her well arm'd ships in that Island were her Armies and her Citadels She enjoyed good health and that so long as none of her Predecessors lived so long as she and but few reigned so long And although she detested the Queen of Scots whom at last she put to death yet she was pleased that her Son King James who was likewise fallen into Heresie should succeed her and unite the Island of England and Scotland into one body which whilst divided had formerly for so many Ages been cause of so many discords wars and calamities on both sides THE HISTORY OF THE WARS OF FLANDERS Written by CARDINAL BENTIVOGLIO The Third Part. BOOK VII