A DISCOURSE OF ALL SUCH FIGHTS, Skirmishes, Exploits, and other politic attempts which have happened in France since the arrival of the Duke of Parma, and the joining of his Forces with the Enemies.  
Wherein is most truly declared the good success of the King's Majesty, and the manner of the entrenching of the said Duke with all his Forces in a Moor, near unto the Castle of Brou.  
Truly translated, and published according to the original sent by the French King to his Ambassador here in England.  
Printed at London by Thomas Scarlet, dwelling at the sign of the green Dragon in Adling street, and are to be sold by William Wright.   

A true discourse of all that hath happened in the most Christian Kings Army since the arrival of the Duke of Parma in France, and the joining of his forces with the enemy, until the fifteenth day of this present month of September. 1590.  
AFter that great and happy victory which it pleased God to give the King against his enemies near to Eury the fourteenth of March last passed, he also vouchsafed to grant him such peculiar favour (unto conquerors not usual) as thereby to be no whit puffed up either in deed or word, but contrariwise to grow the more gracious and tractable, as may appear in his releasing of a great part of the rigour of his Edicts and declarations against his rebellious towns & subjects after the said victory more than before. Which cause was worth unto him fifteen or sixteen good cities & towns, whereof only one held out the battery, and all the rest yielded upon friendly composition, and have since continued most firm, constant, and resolute in his service, as having tried that transferring themselves from a tyrannous usurpation to a lawful dominion, their state was greatly amended. A few days after this overthrow, the Lord of Villeroy one of the chief of the contrary faction, seeming desirous to reclaim himself, and to provide for his particular safety, drew near to Mant, where through his majesties permission he had some communication with Monsieur du Plessis Mornay, who for his part used him with such favourable speeches concerning not only his own particular cause, but also the general, that he feigned himself willing to enterprise some treaty of peace. Afterward he returned openly while the siege lay about Melune, and albeit his majesty were advertised that this his legation was nothing but deceit: also that the Ambassador might be first deceived, yet with this only confidence, that with his sole discretion and franchise he might convert them from their bad purposes into contrary resolutions, as many times it hath fallen out, that set conspiracies have been confounded by the innocent presence of those against whom they should have been put in execution, he forbore not to receive him with as great humanity, as if he had been assured that his Commission imported as good purposes, as he was certain of the contrary, whereby the said Lord of Villeroy found himself so surprised, that he did half confess this his conversion, and protested that he would more faithfully employ himself thereabouts then before he had done. In the mean time his Majesty having in a short space recovered all that lay upon the rivers of Sein, Marne, Yonne, and Oyse, he determined to draw near unto the City of Paris (in purpose to recover it, and to root out the rebellion in the same place where it first began, yet with a mild and natural death devoid of violence, terror or convulsion) which he found so weakly defended, that he might have carried it with as small labour as any of the least towns in his kingdom: which his ability continued the space of four months that he environed it, yea it not only so continued, but became daily more easy in that they that were within, had toward the end lost three parts of their men of service, and his majesties army was strengthened and augmented the one half: howbeit so oft as it came to deliberation, (as there might be diversity of Counsels) his majesty considering that Paris was the head City and principal ornament of his Realm: that therein remained so many Princesses that were allied unto him, so many good and ancient families, so many Churches and religious houses, with persons appertaining to the service of the same, who for the most part peradventure were innocent of this rebellion, and yet the said town being taken by force, could not be exempt or freed from such excess and violence as in so furious an accident can no way be eschewed, could never be induced to consent to that resolution before he had attempted all other means: yea hardly would he grant to take the suburbs, not as a matter unnecessary to be done, but for fear lest the one might draw on the other: Also that the soldiers seeing themselves so near to so good a booty, should have been hardly restrained from proceeding farther, as in deed it was the greatest labour that the king and the chiefest of his Captains had during the whole siege, to restrain their soldiers from any farther enterprise: for there was no difference to be made between the attempting to execute it and the taking of the suburbs, which was performed at once without any resistance. Also that which since hath been seen, albeit repugnant to rule, viz. that the less containeth not the greater, yet seven or eight thousand soldiers that lodged in the suburbs, kept enclosed above thirty thousand armed men that were in the said town, aught to be proof sufficient, that the taking thereof perforce could not have been avoided.  
Hereupon his Majesty, to the end not to lose the said town, but to preserve the honour of so many families, and to spare the shedding of such innocent blood as might have been spilled, resolved to tame them with want of food, and rather with patience to bear out the delay of whatsoever siege, then to practise any farther endeavour: wherein he had two purposes, either that it would fall out through the said siege, that upon the said want, they that were within should not be able to hold out, or else that the Duke of Maine would approach to their succour, whereby he might have opportunity to fight with him, which was the thing that he most desired, as seeking thereby rather to pluck up the root of the mischief, then to cut off the branches. And had his majesty been as resolute and implacable in the first, as he hath showed himself most careful in the second, the town had undoubtedly been his. Indeed the reason of war willeth that being once resolved to fight and conquer the obstinacy of the besieged with fasting and abstinence, we should not suffer any victuals whatsoever to be brought in by any whomsoever, also that we should shut in all that were within and not suffer any, so much as one, to come forth, to the end that the more there were within, the sooner the victuals might be consumed: and this rule ought to have been observed with all severity and without favour or exception. Yet during the last month of the siege that want and misery within the town were so extreme, the cries so fearful of such numbers as daily died in the streets for hunger, & of so many others, whose rage was such that openly they eat the dogs raw: the howlings of the people, the lamentations of such mothers as miss their children, did pierce not only the air but the stone walls, so as his majesty could not abide to hear them with such beastly obstinacy, as they that were the causers did see them with their eyes: yea those that had yet some provision of victuals accounted all this people but unprofitable souls, and thought long to have them all dead and cast away, so that as the king's courage and magnanimity are invincible, so were his humanity and clemency easy to be overcome and did soon stoop to these monstrous pities, choosing rather to err in the rules of war than of nature, even of his own nature which aboundeth in mildness and clemency. He considered that all this people were Christians, that they were his subjects, that the most part were peradventure innocent, & that therefore it was requisite to release them from this despair wherein they were lost, and in the end his good nature broke all bars of the laws of war. First he granted a Passport for all the women, maidens, and children, and for all the Scholars that were willing to come forth: afterward he extended it to religious persons and Church men: And finally he enlarged it to those that had been his greatest enemies, yea he took care that at their coming forth they might be courteously received throughout all his Towns, whither they list to repair. He suffered the Princes and Princesses that were in the Town to be relieved with some proportion of victuals, which since hath been but badly considered: so that it may be confessed that the siege continued longer by one month than it should, and so consequently had not the due effect: howbeit, sith this is the cause, it is so holy and agreeable unto God, that certainly it shall be rewarded double, and will be worth the recovery not only of Paris, but of the whole estate or more, so infinite are God's graces and heavenly rewards.  
Moreover his majesty in all these extremities never failed in all fatherly duties that might be, exhorting them by public letters and messengers to receive him, with assurance of all things concerning Catholic Religion, & whatsoever other good usage & quiet peace. He permitted the Cardinal of Gondy and the Archbishop of Lions to have recourse from them unto him, who departed again so well satisfied and contented, that they wept to consider how many did err in an opinion that they had conceived of his majesty, far other than they ought to have: He also gave them leave to pass to the Duke of Maine, yet did all these his courtesies turn to poison and venom in their corrupted stomachs: whereof appeared a most certain, but shameful proof, in that when the said Duke of Maine returned the said Cardinal of Gondy and the Archbishop of Lions unto his majesty, with protestation that he desired nothing so much as peace. He wrote likewise at the same time to the Parisians by one of his Secretaries that followed their train, that they should not be dismayed for this Parley, and that he would rather die then conclude any peace: which letter falling from him that carried it, and being showed to the said Duke of Maine, he could not deny the signing thereof: which when the Archbishop of Lions objected unto him, he had no other excuse but that he was surprised: yet might he more truly have said that thereby he purposed to have surprised as well the one as the other.  
If his majesty hath been somewhat tender, and not altogether so strict as the laws of war do command in such rigour as was to be practised against the Parisians, he hath sufficiently recompensed the same in his care and diligence to meet with his enemies in the field, which hath always been his greatest desire, rather than with the Cannon to beat his towns and the poor inhabitants of the same. Immediately after the beginning of the siege the King being advertised that the Duke of Maine, at his return out of Flanders, whither he went to crave succour of the Duke of Parma, having already gathered some troops, was departed with Balagny & S. Paul to march and approach toward Paris, went from his army with a troup of Horsemen without any baggage, and marched seventeen leagues without a bait to meet with him, and came short but one hour, having forced him to shut up himself in the town of Laon.  
After that the Duke of Maine having gathered great succour and being come to Meaux, still giving out that he came to give battle, his said majesty departed again from his army with a troop of horse, and came to meet him almost to Meaux, where he found him enclosed between the river of Marne, and that which cometh from Grecy, as fearing rather to be besieged, than endeavouring to besiege others, & this he did expecting the coming of the Duke of Parma, at whose arrival and the day following, they published every where that they would give battle, whereat his majesty rejoiced more than at any other thing. And in deed the Duke of Parma being come and joined with the said Duke of Maine, they began within two days after to march, and passed the brook that runneth by the town of Clay, and the Castle of Fresne where they lodged, so that his majesty hoping the next day to have battle, having commended himself to God (as in all such occasions he there beginneth) and exhorted every one to do the like, he departed from the Village of Challiot near to Paris upon Wednesday the nine and twentieth of the last month, and appointed the general meeting of his whole army the next day in the plain of Bondy, which lieth upon the head of the forest of Eurie which was the direct way for the enemy, and to the end also to be ready to meet them if they took the way on the side whereby to shun the passage through the said forest: having also the same day brought his footmen that lay in the suburbs of Paris to be at the battle, the army all the while stood upon the said plain of Bondie in battle array, but had no news of the enemy. Thither did his majesty cause his power to come and stay two days, where there appeared no enemy in any corner. Hereupon he resolved upon Friday to draw nearer to them and to lodge at Chelles, to which end having sent the Lord of Laverdin one of the marshal's of his camp, and the Lord of Chastillion: at their arrival they found the enemies marshals and harbingers that had begun to provide the lodgings, whom they drove away: and his majesty coming soon after, descried some seven or eight hundred of the enemies Horse, among whom the two Generals were said to be, whom he charged with a far less number, and followed beating of them even to their lodgings. Upon Saturday the first of this month, his highness stood assured of battle above the said village of Chelles, which was a plain that hath behind it two small hills, at the head divided from a small wood with a brook, and in the said wood is a Castle called Brou, and beyond it a more separate from a little plain that lieth between the said castle and the moor, with an other small brook, which was the lodging that the enemy had taken. His majesties army stood in battle array: About eleven of the clock the Duke of Parma got unto one of the hills, to the end to view it, and having seen it, it is said he fetched as great a sigh as if it should have been his last: and turning to the Duked of Main, did greatly reproach him, saying, that this was not the army of ten thousand men, that he had assured him to fight withal, but that he there descried above five and twenty thousand, the best in order that ever he had seen. This astonishment is not to be objected unto him as a fault: for here had been matter to have daunted one that had both seen and lead greater armies than he, as indeed it may be truly said to have been the bravest army that had been seen in France a long time. It contained at the least eighteen thousand footmen, whereof six thousand were strangers, and five or six thousand Horses, of whom almost four thousand were french Gentlemen, and of the best houses in France. Therein were six Princes, two Mashals of France, and more Captains and leaders of armies than are in all the rest of Christendom. The Prince of Parma in lieu of coming to battle, changed all his men's weapons, and for spears furnished them with mattocks and Shovels, wherewith all the night they entrenched themselves within the moor, wherein both the Horsemen and footmen were lodged.  
The said Saturday after dinner his majesty drove them from the brook, the wood and the house that stood in the wood, so that they retired into the said moor, and from thence forth the duke of Parma in lieu of battle, sought only to entrench & fortify himself, which he did very strongly. At night his majesty returned to lodge at the said village of Chelles. Every day after he laboured by all means to draw them to the battle, causing continual skirmishes, wherein still some of their men stayed behind, all which notwithstanding there was no means to provoke them any farther, openly confessing that upon the saturday at afternoon they lost all stomach to battle. Within a few days after they determined to assail the little town of Laigny that was within half a league behind them, & having made a bridge of Boats almost hard by the town, upon the eight day by break of day, they passed over the most part of their footmen, beating it from over the river with nine pieces, the breach was made before his highness had in manner any notice thereof, by reason the wind was so turned, and the mist so great and thick that the Canon could not be heard. There was in it some two or three hundred men, who defended it so well, that the enemy lost the greater number, and had the succour that was sent come never so little sooner, they had not so easily carried it away.  
It appeared well that there was never a village in France better able to defend itself, considering that they never forced it upon any other consideration, but caused it to be dismantelled so soon as they had taken it. His majesty imagining that this might have cheered up their courage, commanded the skirmish the next day hotter than before, wherewith they were the less provoked. Finally, considering that the most part of this gentry, who at the only report of this battle were come in without any furniture, knowing themselves out of hope thereof, did urge their departure. He thought it time to think upon some other kind of war against the enemy, then to linger upon drawing them to a general fight, whereof they had sufficiently showed themselves unwilling to taste: yet before he would enter into this determination he purposed to try one means more to draw them thereto. Wherefore he determined to make show as if he would force Paris, and to the same end departed the tenth day at night from Chelles with a good troup of footmen and some gentry, so to get by the break of day to the gates of Paris and to offer the assault, having with all given commandment that the army should the next morning departed and return to Bondy: And this he did with this intent, that the enemy knowing of his return to Paris should follow his army, which might be an occasion of battle: But the enterprise of Paris being discovered had no success, as also had not the other: for all this notwithstanding, the enemy durst not come forth of his moor, as standing in continual fear of some false bait whereby to draw them where they were not resolved to come: which by this occasion rather than any other, was fully confirmed, because that seeing his majesties forces separate they stirred not, as also that now there was no hope of any other than such as leisure might afford.  
This was the cause why his majesty being returned to his army at the said place of Bondy, where all the day it had waited for the enemies approach, and hearing no news of their dislodging, determined the same day to take up his lodging at Gonesse. The next morning having assembled the Princes, the officers of the crown, and other great Captains present in the said army, it was among them thoroughly discoursed and debated, that it was evident and plain that the Prince of Parma's intent was not for to fight: that to hope to force him thereto in time by lodging still near unto him, he should have the advantage of them, his army being fresh and under pay, consisting of strangers, who do not lightly scatter, where contrariwise his majesties forces were for the most part tired, expecting no pay: That to return to the siege of Paris, sith his majesty was not minded to take it perforce, but rather to expect their last extremity, the time would be over long, the rather because they having had liberty toward the parties of Beausse, ever since the departure of the army toward Chelles, might have sufficiently refurnished themselves for the time. That sith the enemy would not war after our manner, it was meet we should apply ourselves to his: and sith he would not have the honour to fight with so many honourable personages, as to that end were assembled, it was requisite to fight and distress him with the want of victuals and other such discommodities. That his majesty furnishing his towns that lie upon the river of Seine with victuals and strong garrisons, should still keep Paris as straightly besieged, as with the presence of an army, & therefore that he should not need so strong a one thereabout as his was. That it might suffice to have a mean power wherewith so oft as the enemy should attempt any thing, still be at his heels. That returning his forces into their Provinces from whence they came, would be a great relief to the said provinces, and by refreshing his said troops, he should still yield them opportunity to get somewhat. That when the foreign forces shall chance to enter, upon the return of his troops thus refreshed, and their joining with him, his majesty shall find himself twice as strong as he now is, and withal, shall so bridle the enemies, as they may not perform any great exploit: besides that, the others coming upon them, it will be a means to force them farther than to entrench in the moor. This opinion, with sundry good and sufficient reasons being best liked, his majesty in this famous council concluded and decreed to follow the said proposition, purposing to begin with the town of Saint Denis, for the defence whereof they strove who should get the charge, every one hoping that therein rested some honour to be purchased. In the end it fell to the Lord of Laverdin, who thankfully accepted it. He provided also strong garrisons to fortify the towns of Melune, Corbeile, Senlis, Meulan, Maunt, and sundry others, of which the least might suffice to bring the said Duke of Parma's power on their knees. His majesty also resolved to return into Touraine, Anjou and Maine, the Lord Prince of Contie, into Normandy the Duke of Montpenfier, into Picardy the D. of Longuevil, into champaign the D. of Nevers, & into Burgundy the Marshal Aumont, every of them with good forces sufficient to keep the said provinces in peace.  
He also retained still about himself a mean power, yet strong and mighty enough to make head against the enemy, and to keep him from any enterprise, before he would be at their elbows: withal purposing to hold them so short, that in a small time he might still be with them as occasion might require. This form of war did he judge, (considering that the enemies resolution tended not to fight) to be more to their discommodity and hindrance than any other. Whereupon as the Lords of Guich, Ragnie, & Ciper were upon their retreat, not having above six score fight men, they met with the Viscount Tauannes retiring into Normandy with about five hundred Horse, whereof above half were Cuirasses and the rest Harcubuziers, whom in the end they charged and overthrew near to Meulay, leaving of them above fifty dead in the place, and taking as many prisoners together with all their baggage.  
This is the true History of all that hath passed in his majesties army since the Duke of Parma joined with his enemies. Also the principal reasons that moved him to resolve upon the dissolving of his forces, whereof he wisheth by these remembrances all his Governors and Lieutenants general of his provinces, his courts of parliament, his Nobility, his towns and all other his officers to be informed, that they may certify all other his good and faithful subjects, to the end they may know that this resolution was not slightly taken, neither by force nor compulsion, but upon ripe deliberation and military discretion, with the advice and consent of the greatest and wisest Captains at this day in Europe, who still are assistant unto the King, also that of the said resolution there is no other to be expected but all good success: that God himself hath earnestly dealt in the matter, always showing that he hath taken this so just a cause into his protection, as not permitting so many Princes, so many great Lords and wise Captains, even sufficient to purchase to this crown three or four others, to hazard themselves in battle against those strangers, who all for the most part are mercenary men, so as their whole loss is not to countervail the least of a hundred Princes and Lords which might have been cast away.  
It doth also evidently appear, that he deemeth them unworthy to be fought withal in such manner, and is determined to bring them to destruction with less honour, and to overthrow and defeat them by two inward enemies whom they have among them, namely, want of victuals, which doth already pinch them extremely, and division, which likewise is grown so great, that the French not able any longer to bear the Spaniards insolency, are for the most part retired: & there is no more in this army of strangers, but the duke of Maine and some small number of French men, whom they lead about as it were in triumph. For others have they not yet gotten, as not having offered one sole combat, and in such as have been presented them, still going away with loss. They have not as yet recovered the Ancients which they lost at Eurie, neither any other wherewith to get them again by exchange. The Parisians cannot boast their frantic obstinacy to be constancy, but are rather to confess that it is God's sufferance, to the end to drive them to a longer penance, as also to be themselves the executioners of the first punishments that he hath decreed against them: and for the second, having this comfort and recompense for their patience and great service done to the Duke of Maine, viz. to see the Spaniards whom he hath brought even home unto them, become masters of themselves and of their houses, their wives and their daughters, wherein they may now he an example to others that should have served them in the prevention of the mischief that both doth and still will oppress them, until it may please God to suffer his Majesty to be their deliverer.  
Now hath the Duke of Maine good cause to feel and judge that his treacle is worse than the poison, and that the remedy which himself hath sought, is far more dangerous than the mischief that he went about to cure. Neither shall the king of Spain be quite frustrate of the reward to him promised by this trouble which he upholdeth and nourisheth in this realm, by cloaking his ambition with the false pretence of religion, which he ought first to have practised at his own home, by rooting out paganism, which is so ordinary and whereof he reapeth profit and revenue, permitting in Granado, Andalusia and Arragon, more villages without Christians, than he hath good Christians in his best towns. It is God's will that he should live, to the end in his old days to lay upon him the deserved judgement of such sacrilege as himself committeth, enfringinge the confederacies that he hath with this crown, which are not written in paper or parchment only, but also in the memories of men, as kisses & public faith. The Duke of Parma who had so wisely foreseen the reason why they sought to make him undertake the enterprise of England, hath failed in this, wherein he shall shortly know that he shall have more time to repent, then means of remedy. All the mischief that this hath wrought, is that it hath so much the longer delayed the effect of his majesties good meanings, who could not by reason of such great and continual affairs as have still followed him, hitherto put in effect the afore resolved convocation of the chief of this realm, with whom deeply to have considered of whatsoever may be necessary to the wealth and peace thereof, which he claimeth as his own, the one being inseparable from the other: As also he could get no leisure to take counsel, first with God and then with men, by whom he might have been assisted and helped to resolve upon whatsoever his good and affectionate catholic subjects do desire at his hands. It is greatly to be hoped that by this Crisis God will at this time cure the disease, and therefore it is all our parts with one mind to call upon him, and to entreat him to grant us his grace, wherewith the help of men shall not fail. The nobility hath sufficiently in all occasions that have been offered, given to understand their good minds to sacrifice their lives for the delivery of their king and realm from this canker of rebellion. Also it must follow that France must abandon & give over the french name and language, if at this time she free not herself from so many petty tyrants as do now oppress her, and are determined to rent and share her among them: his Majesty protesteth before God, that he will never leave arms until this be performed, and is resolved therein to employ the rest of his life, if necessity so require, as also he adjureth all the Princes, officers of the crown, courts of Parliament and all other orders of this estate, never to rest themselves, but contrariwise earnestly to take courage against the storm, to the end they might guide this vessel to the haven of health, where we see our God stretching forth his arm unto us, assuring them that upon the present arrival thereof, he will employ his whole & first leisure on the granting to his subjects whatsoever contentation he may, and that God shall more particularly inspire him withal, from whom he craveth to himself and his poor people all peace and relief possible, wishing no longer life then during the same to have means to purchase unto them that benefit, which is the whole fruit and reward that he desireth for his labours.  
FINIS.