A DECLARATION Exhibited to the French king by his Court of parliament concerning the holy LEAGVE. Whereunto is adjoined: AN Advertisement to the three Estates of France, comprehending a true report of such occurrences as have passed between the house of Guise, in favour of the holy League: and the king of Navarre & his adherents for their necessary defence.  
Faithfully translated out of French.  
Imprinted 1587.   

❧ A Declaration exhibited to the King, by his Court of parliament.  
THe members of your Court of Parliament having consulted upon the edict and Bull which your Majesty sent to them, do beseech you to accept in good part such humble declarations as they desire to give you to understand of before they verify, or record the said Edict or Bull. For notwithstanding the small access that our prayers have aforetime had unto your Majesty do almost stop our mouths, by taking away all hope of other answer then heretofore we have received, yet so long as it shall please your Majesty to continue us in our offices, we are bound to continue in our accustomed fidelity to the discharge of your conscience and ours, which now with your majesties good liking and favour, we do, taking so much the more boldness in liberty, as the enemies of your estate, do ween to have licence to abuse your godliness and devotion for the covering of their impiety and rebellion.  
If it had pleased God that those reasons which were debated in your presence concerning the publishing of the Edict of julie last passed, might have pierced the ears of that patience & good affection which your majesty was accustomed to reserve to the voice of this company, we should not now be driven to this extremity: for even then Sir, you might have perceived that those persons who under a very uncertain hope of reuniting your subjects to one only religion, did pawn forth your authority and conscience to the most assured destruction of your Estate: That they had not leagued and united themselves to any other end but to disunite your subjects from your obedience, wherein through an especial and singular grace of God they remained united, notwithstanding their disunion in Religion. That although their armies are great and terrible, as appeareth by the great mischiefs and oppressions that your people do bear at their hands, yet we may by the experience of that which is past, judge them to be over-weake to put their purposes in execution: That notwithstanding they had means to do it, yet your majesty ought not to employ them, because the offence which you seek to correct is tied to the consciences, which are exempt from all power of iron or fire, & may be entreated with other means more convenient to that fatherly affection which your people have evermore found in you, considering that even those men whom so often you have sought by force to compel, do now voluntarily offer to submit themselves to all reason, and unto that course they have evermore been allowed in the church.  
But in as much as that that is decreed cannot be revoked, also that the edict which is now upon the file, is but the execution and conclusion of the former, we do not desire to declare unto you any other thing, but that it may please your Majesty to call to mind that kings are shepherds, and the Edicts their shepherd's staves, wherewith they guide their flock under a mild and gracious government, ●hich is more profitable to the flock then to the shepherd: For your maies●●e may of yourself conceive that the name of an Edict can no way be accommodated unto this bloody prescription which in so express terms containeth the general cause of the flock, and so consequently the disannulling of the office and authority of the shepherd.  
Admit the whole number of Protestants were reduced into one only person, yet is there not that man among us that dare conclude upon death against the same, before the formal determination of his process, Whereby if he were not duly attaint and convict of some capital or heinous crime, such as might condemn the offender, we should be loath to destroy a good Citizen. Who therefore is he that without any order of law dare dispeople so many Towns, and destroy such a number of Provinces, and so convert this Realm into ashes▪ Who I say is he that dare pronounce the word that shall expose so many millions of men, women and children to death? Yea and that without any cause or apparent reason, considering they be not taxed with any other crime than heresy: an heresy (if it may be termed heresy) as yet unknown, or at the least undecided: an heresy which they have defended even in your own presence against the most famous Divines in your Realm: an heresy wherein they have been borne, and for the space of these 30 years brought up, by the sufferance of your majesty, and the late king your brother of happy memory. Even an heresy which they remit to the judgement of an universal, general, or national Council.  
The breach of the Edict of pacification hath brought us forth so many calamities, as there is no tongue able sufficiently to express them: & it were a hard matter to note one sole benefit received in exchange of the same, except that it hath a far larger scope than was thought for. For those that make so cheap markets of the Protestants skins, would never have brought you to their opinion, if they could have imagined the number to have been so great as at this day, now that they are forced to assemble themselves together, it appeareth. And who is he that with himself can conspire the murdering of such a multitude without horror, or that may consent thereto unless he abandon all feeling of humanity?  
Consider sir what affection those men can bear to your service, when they thirst so much after your blood, what fidelity they bring to the preservation of this so frail and ancient estate, when they soak out that our remainder of force and strength by so unreasonable blood-letting, that even those that shallbe the Barbers and Surgeons, shallbe in danger of drowning themselves. For we alas, have at over high a price learned that thirty or forty thousand Protestants, armed for the defence of their lives, & of whatsoever else they hold dear in this world, cannot be overthrown without the loss of very near as many Catholics, who marching against their wills to this warfare, can hardly countervail the forces of those whose hope resteth in despair and who have nothing left but courage and weapons.  
If the Lords vengeance doth so fiercely pursue us, who shall remain to obey this Edict? If both parties once come to flesh themselves each upon other, even to the utter destruction and ruin of the one or other party, who dare promise himself that he shall remain and enjoy the victory, if it may be termed a victory after such destruction? or rather, what shall remain for the plague & famine which already do plead against war, for the honour of the utter ruin of your Realm?  
But what may the posterity say, when it shall hear that your court of Parliament hath propounded the honouring of the articles of a league, assembled against the estate: armed against the kings person: risen up against God himself: Yea such a one as spiting nature, commandeth the fathers to be no longer fathers to their sons: the mothers to be no mothers to their daughters: inviting one friend to betray another, & calling the murderer to the succession of the murdered, with the fatherly name of your edicts?  
We will no longer stand upon the particularities of the iniquities, and wrongs, in an infinite number gathered together under this form of Edict, whereby those that are authors thereof do hope to be able to win the Realm, when they have once put you to lose it. But we beseech your majesty not to be led by their counsels, which proceed only from blind ambition: but rather as you have begun, so to follow the so renowned example of the wisdom & justice of Solomon, for as he, to the end to try out the true mother from the supposed, feigned to become cruel, so do we likewise hope that your majesty having made show to communicate in the tyrannous desires of the league, to the end to discover them, will take heed of fulfilling them, and rather make your profit of the same to the preservation of your natural and obedient subjects.  
We mean not herein, for to excuse the taking of Montlymar, and many other places surprised by those of the pretended Religion, neither do we desire any thing so much, as that a good peace might restore strength & authority to your laws, whereby to do you right: but Nature permitting all men to defend their lives by whatsoever means, doth somewhat excuse those that have been brought to that necessity, and contrariwise the sin of the others is inexcusable, in that, that they counsel your Majesty to so pernicious a warfare, only upon licourishnes of the confiscation of the Protestants goods, whom with such rigours they have forced to seek recompense of their losses at your cost, and to confiscate whatsoever they may be able to enterprise upon your majesty.  
As for the Bull, the curate findeth the style thereof to be new, unusual, and so far from the modesty of former Popes, that it doth no way therein acknowledge the order of a Successor to the Apostles. And because throughout our records, or in any antiquity we find not that the princes of France have been subject to the Pope's justice, either that subjects have taken notice of their Prince's religion, the Court cannot determine thereupon until the Pope can prove his right which he pretendeth in the translation of Realms established and ordained by GOD, before the name of Pope came into the world: Until he hath declared unto us by what title he intermeddleth in the succession of a youthful and strong prince, who by the course of nature may have his heir in his loins: Before he hath instructed our Religion, with what appearance of justice or equity he denieth the law of nations▪ to such as are fallen into heresy, yea against the holy canons and ancient decrees, which never suffer any to be holden for an heretic, until he hath been freely heard in his reasons, admonished by sundry synods & judged by a Council called and freely gathered together: He must teach us with what kind of piety & holiness he giveth that which is not his own, or taketh away that that lawfully belongeth to another: That he stirreth up the vassals & subjects to mutinies against their lords and sovereign Princes, and overthroweth the foundations of all laws and politic order: To be brief, he must show us by what authority he enterpriseth to condemn your blood to the fire, & as it were, to send part of your soul into hell.  
But in as much as this new Pope in am of instruction, doth in his bull breath out nothing but destruction and changeth his shepherds staff into a flaming or fiery torch, wherewith utterly to destroy those whom if they be strayed, he ought to win again to the flock of the church. The Court can no longer consult upon the publication of a Bull so pernicious unto all Christendom, & to the sovereignty of your crown, even presently deeming it worthy no other recompense, than the same which one of your Predecessors caused us to give to the like Bul sent unto him by one of this Pope's predecessors: and that was to cast it into the fire in the presence of the whole French Church, enjoining his Attorney general to make diligent inquisition after those that had prosecuted the expedition thereof in the Court of Rome, to the end to minister so severe & speedy justice against them, that it might serve for an example to all posterities.  
For who knoweth not that all those subtleties are sued out by all the enemies of this estate, who under the name of your heirs do directly address themselves against your own person, imagining that already by their practices they have attained the type of their attempts, and that they have no more to do but by the cloak to pluck you out of your seat, to the end to take full possession of that which they have barked at, and followed so long.  
These things are so evident, and have been so narrowly searched out, that it were in vain for us to abuse your patience with any larger declarations, whereof we do not hope any greater effect or virtue then of the former. But if it be so that our sins have utterly closed up the ears of your clemency against justice, yet do us this favour, to take into your hands again those officer wherewith it hath pleased your majesty and the kings your predecessors to honour us withal, so shall you be freed from the importunate difficulties which we are forced to make at such Edicts, and our consciences discharged from the curse that God hath prepared for wicked magistrates and their Counsellors.  
The necessity of your affairs have many times heretofore forced us to wink at sundry oppressions & pernicious inventions.  
The opinion which your majesty had conceived that those of the pretended reformed Religion would habandon the exercise thereof, and that that faction might be oppressed without much bloodshed or destruction of this estate, have yet received so much power over our advises as to cause us to pass the revocation of very many Edicts, so solemnly sworn unto.  
We do now to our great grief and confusion perceive how small profit to you our cowardliness hath brought, how hurtful it hath been to all your subjects: and how shameful to us and our posterity. Our patience can no longer be obedience, but unexcusable astonishment if it stretcheth any further, or proceedeth to carelessness and contempt of all Common wealth.  
It is therefore more convenient for your majesty to have no Court of Parliament, then to see the same unprofitable as we are, & it will be more honourable for us to return private into our houses, or in our bosoms to bewail the public calamities with the rest of our fellow Citizens, then to enthrall the dignity of our offices to the cursed inventions of the enemies of your Crown.   

An advertisement to the three Estates of France, concerning the war of the League.  
MY Masters you were heretofore sufficiently advertised that the league, notwithstanding whatsoever it promised, would breed great calamities in this Realm, and yet do small harm to the king of Navarre, and his partakers. Likewise that it was made properly against this Realm, and so acknowledged at the first by both the king & all yourselves. The K. of N. as he in himself feeleth the least harm and you the principal, so is he but the colour and pretence.  
The worst is that you had more mind to see it then to prevent it, & to feel it, even to the quick, then to believe it. Notwithstanding in deed I know that many of you have served for Cassandra●s unto Troy, as having small authority to turn away the mischief, though wise enough & sufficiently advised to foretell it.  
The authors of this League to the end the more easily to induce you to enter into this war, did propound great facility therein. It would be done in three days, the best holds were not to hold out the first sound of their name. The K. of Na. was by & by stumbled: there wanted no more but the making of his Epitaph: If any man presumed but once to make mention of 25. years evil spent in this like purpose, that is to say, much time wasted in consuming ourselves, it was an offence and proved heresy, neither wanted there these ordinary replications, namely that the League that now was taken in hand was a far other matter, and that these Captains knew other sleights, and thus violence in am of reason made them to prevail.  
Mark here my masters the progress of their affairs in one year, measure by that years work all the ●est, notwithstanding their principal ●eate be vanished in smoke, and the most part of their choler converted into phlegm, and thereby you may be able to judge of the success of that which is to come: for you shall see that as wearied and tired as already we be, we have not set forward any one good step, but that we have gone back two for it.  
After the edict of julie which proceeded by the violence of the league, the Lord of Maine took upon him the province of Guyenne, and to that end had beside the forces of the league, all the king's power committed to him, whereby each one may judge what army that was: (for of two reasonable strong armies he made but one) he departed possessed with a great mass of money, and had in a manner dried up the whole devotion of the Clergy: he wanted neither artillery nor munition. But besides if you will but call to mind either their brags, or your own imaginations a● that time, you shall find that all the walls in Guyenne mouldered away and vanished in dust: yea even the King of Na. witted not where to become to shroud himself.  
And in deed it is most certain that he was then unarmed as one that neither would, neither could be persuaded that the obedience which he still yielded to the king, could have turned to his destruction: he was armed with sure confidence in God the maintainer of the right, yea, even naked against armed injury, he thought himself sufficiently covered under his king's armour, which should have defended him, sith he had so far honoured him, as to acknowledge and take his quarrel for his own.  
Well the said L. of Maine cometh into Poictou and Xantoigne: he leaveth behind him Rochel, and S john d'Angely, Pons, etc., And setting upon nothing (yet were these places nearest the heart of the realm, & occasion fell very well out, for at that time they were so vexed with the plague, that the soldiers could scarce a bide to continue among them) he thence took his way through Perigord, where by composition, he took the Castle of Montignac le Conte, a place that had been as it were the banner of all the former troubles as every one knoweth, and the course of his voyage did bear as if he should have gone to Bergerac, there to have tried the first fury of his army, but he took his way by Sovillac, where he passed over Dordonne leaving Monfort, Turenne, Saint Cere, places belonging to the Viscount of Turenne untouched. Thence he entered into Queacy, where the adversary held Figeac, Cadenac, Ca●earc, and other places, he was lodged in the midst of them three whole weeks, he was desired by the estates of the country, urged by the Bishop of Cuhorls, & importunately called upon by the Seneschal, to deliver them: yea it is not unknown to what words the Lords of St. Supplice and Camburat grew unto with him, when they see all the country wasted and brought into famine, & all without profit, and in deed he did nothing but compound with two or three gentlemen of the weakest lodged, with condition that they might exercise their religion in their houses, so that they prosecuted no war from their holds, saving that in their own persons they might do it in any other place.  
His excuses were that he would go cleanse the rivers and assure the traffic of the country. Also the most trusty he told in their ears, that he would surprise & assail the K. of Na. wheresoever he were. A truantlike stratagem if ever there were any, which nevertheless was their foundation, as if France had been a chess board, wherein a prince could not have walked above four steps, & in deed the K. of Nau. having as well as he could furnished such places as he left behind him, passed over the river of Garonne between the two armies of the said Duke of Maine, and the marshal of Matignon which lay not passed four or five leagues from him, and so came to Bergerac even in the face of the Duke of Maynes army and there abode a whole month together without either river or brook between them, and yet had never so much as one all arume given him, and so finally went into Xantogne setting forward toward France, and visiting his government even to the banks of Loire. This did he whom they should have chased away within four months, yea he whom they should have brought to the bay, unless he had resolved speedily to avoid the realm.  
The marshal of Matignon had besieged Castetz, a house of the L. Faba● standing upon Garonne, when the L. of Maine came. The said Lord of Main without his knowledge, to the end to rob him of that small glory, compounded for xii. thousand crowns to have it yielded to him, which was an unusual matter among soldiers, that a place being beaten & the breach made should be assaulted with silver.  
Since that time he took S. Bazeill, Montsegur and Castillon, places unknown before these wars: places never mentioned in the most particular maps: places of no name but only for the resolution of defence, and yet such places, especially Montsegur and Castillon, as have cost him dear every way. And it is most certain that had not the pestilence vexed Castillon more than a man would ween, he had been hardly set before it, considering that the Lord of Turenne did secure & refresh it even in the sight of the said D. of Maine. This is the sum of all that he hath done in Guyenne in one whole year: Where you are also to note that the K. of N. hath increased himself with Tayllebourge and Royan, places that be strong both by art and nature, havens, yea the mouths of Charent and Garonne, I speak not of St. john d'Angely Tonnay-Charent & others, which besides them are recompense sufficient for Castetz and St. Bazeile.  
I leave to say that Garonne which was promised to be opened for the contenting of Tholouze and Bordeaux do still remain shut, yea more straitly then before the war: for you must not think that after the taking of St. Bazeile the said Lord of Maine durst set upon Caumont which having the river between them stood in his face, neither Mas and the other places that command over Gàronne, besides that at the same time they fortified the town of Meillan, which is more worth than all that he hath taken, as the country men know well enough, beside also certain sorts on each side of the water, which since they have built beneath Clairac, whereby the merchants to whom he had given his word to make free the traffic before the last Christmas, forbidding them expressly upon pain of death to compound for the liberty and assurance of the passage for them, and their wares do find themselves further to seek then at the first, while in the mean time for want of traffic they have incurred sundry losses whereby diverse are become bankrupts, have finally grown to composition, cursing the League and all the favourers thereof. But that was it which marshal Matygnon very well perceived, which also how modest soever otherwise, he could not in some of his letters conceal, namely, that the Duke of Maine had enterprised more upon Tholouxe and Bordeaux, meaning by Castle Trumpet, then upon Master of Verdun or Caumont.  
Now judge you what likelihood there is that hereafter they may make any great account of the rest of Guyenne: For all such places as at the entry into the war, that began about the latter end of the year, might have wanted victuals, have now at ease made their provision, even with their neighbours consents, whether it were, that common necessity of both parts urged them to such mutual offices, either else that they abhor such extremities and detest the misery of the time: & yet in their notes which they exhibited to the King wherebie to persuade him of the easiness of this affair, the same was set down as an especial mean that they pretended against the principal towns, a mean truly that holdeth more of the nature of extremity then of a mean, & which is more, such a mean as they cannot come to again in two good years and more.  
Neither have the affairs of the League prospered any better in other Provinces. For the L. of Mountmorancye, who in respect of the injury that he perceived to be done to the K. of Navarre, hath associated himself unto him▪ hath brought to his devotion Lodeue and Pons two Bishops▪ Seas, with their Dioceses. He hath fortified both the banks of Rhosne, He hath shot out his roots so far into Provence that they have been forced to grant to the Gentlemen free exercise of Religion. All that may be said to be won in Languedoc is the fort of Montesquyon, lately won rather by treason then strength, which may be counterpeized with a number of Forts of like mettle taken in Provence, and Marueyolz, which hereafter will serve only to make all other resolute, in respect that contrary to the promised faith there were such cruelties & excesses committed therein that hereafter we must seek to find out new names wherewith to describe them. But the siege of Master St. Puels alone is enough to counterpoise all the glory thereof, as being the most miserable and weakest place of all L'A●ragois, which giving the repulse to the army of the L. of joyeuse slew him 32 captains and 5. hundred Harguebuts, dispersed or barred his regiments, and cracked his credit with the men of war, yea drove him to such an exigent, that in the estates since held at Castelnaudarry he resolved to meddle no further therein.  
As for Dauphin, that province which every man knoweth (if we respect the contrary party) to have been the weakest of all other when the troubles began: to be brief, the province wherein the Lord of Maine thought to have made the first trial of his fortune, whereupon also he assured himself of an easy overthrow of the rest, no man is to learn how they suffered Monlimart a notable town be taken, also Ambrun, the metropolitan of the country, those two that they thought they had won to the league, which now the L. of Desdiguires hath made impregnable, besides that they have let them recover die, Liuron, and other places of whose conquest the Lord of Maine triumphed and grounded the foundation of his glory.  
I leave sundry castles in divers provinces taken with less than ten pound of powder, for the which the league would have rung all their bells, & enriched all the mercers of the Palace, if it had won them with the canon: neither do I say that these small holds which the Lord of Maine soundeth in our cares, do every of them cost a million of gold, besides the lives of the best of our soldiers, whereas the good towns afore mentioned, cost not the K. of Na. and his associates past some Petronel shot, & scarce one man. Also that in all the small bickerings that have happened (for there have been no great battle) we shall find that the greatest loss have fallen upon the League, so as we may truly say that for one of the pretended reformed Religion there have died at the least 30. of the League. To be short, all things considered, will any man be so fond as to exchange Royan & Taillebourg in Guienne, Lodeue and St. Ponsun Languedoc, Mountlimart, Ambrin and Dye in Dauphin etc. for Montgnac, Castetz, St. Bazeil, Mountsegur and Castillon, the tokens of the victories of the League, the Trophies of the Duke of Maine, but costly and ruinous triumphs, yea I dare well say funeral triumphs  
Now that they have spit all their fire cometh in a mighty Foreign army to the succour of the K. of Na. what miracle will the League here bring forth to cover us? When before the King it was alleged that undoubtedly he should have aid from the Princes that professed the same Religion with him, though they shot expressly at Religion, and that they would needs have the vizard pulled of, they had, if we would believe them, long before seen to that: Concerning the Queen of Englànde they should cut her out so much work from the Scottish parts even in her own Realm, that she should have enough to do, and it is no doubt but they have kindled all fire brands, stirred up all ashes, and blown at every spark that they might, and yet it hath pleased God to breath such a blast upon their purposes that England was never so quiet, never so strongly united to Scotland▪ neither had ever more evident view of God's blessings either at home or abroad, for that God many times and freely hath miraculously discovered those practices that the jesuits stirred up against the said Q. of England her person and estate, and contra wise favoured her enterprises that she hath taken in hand for the defence of those whom she knew to be wrongfully oppressed.  
To the end to take away all difficulties, they did in a manner enter into bond to the King, that the K. of Na. should have no succour out of Germany. To colour this vain hope, they allege those old controversies upon some points of religion between the French & the Dutch churches, which they promised by their practices to nourish. And now to the contrary, we see that such polices have served only to reunite their hearts, and cease their disputations: that they are most firmly reconciled together to the end henceforth to make it all one body and one cause: that the King of Denmark, the Princes & Electors of the Empire, the L. of the Cantous of the Swytsers, and the Grisons do find themselves grieved in the person of this prince, feeling themselves hurt in his wounds, and teinted in his injuries. As in deed, who would not have been moved: who would not perceive the consequence of that which was framed against him? When for the religion that they profess, which themselves first admitted into their countries, his state, life and honour, are given in pray, himself incapable of all dignities and goods? They should have armed the Germans, one against another: they should have renewed the old brawls between the Catholic and Protestant Princes, neither, said they, did they want devices to divide the Protestants among themselves. Where be now these great policies? what is become of all these discourses, sith that Germany was never at better union in itself, or more disposed to secure their enemies: or now what will they do to that wretch Casimire (for so do they term this Prince) who one of these dai●s (which will be no news unto them) will march over the belly of the trunk of these goodly waterboughes, of the eldest of Lorraine.  
But if the worst fall out and for the breaking of all, when the R●ystres do come in they will bring an army out of Italy that shall consist of the contributions of the Princes of the League. It lieth in an ambush in the Alps even ready to break forth at the time appointed. The state of it trotted all over the Palace, it was red over the Court of the Louvre, But where I pray you doth it now sleep? why doth it not appear at this need? nay who knoweth not that to the contrary the Lords of Venice the most ancient friends and confederates of this Realm have offered the king secure against the League, and do now exhort him to peace. That the king of Spain upon whom they build all their purposes, sith they have not performed what they promised, hath left them in the mid way and with reproach returned their agentes. And what will they say to Pope Sixtus himself, who hath confessed to the Lord of Mountmorencie that they had overreached him in their declaration published against the King of Nau▪ and the Prince of Conde, he prayeth him to pacific matters, even he under whose shadow they sought to provoke them: The Pope who even in Avignon, and that by express treaty, permitteth to the contrary party of Dauphin & Provence free access, to the end with his leave daily to draw thence victuals, weapons, powder, and all other munition of war.  
This Itilian army being thus either molten, or not having been built but in the air, and contrariwise the dutch army being in nature and having one foot already upon the borders, who seethe not into what extremities through their illusions they have brought the people? who perceiveth not what pennyworths they make of our calamities? of all our blood? of the king's honour and of the Realm?  
But they will fight with them, and in deed that is one of the griefs published in their pamphlets, uz. that in the former troubles the strangers were not fought with upon the frontiers: feign would I learn who letted them when in the first troubles the late D. of Guise commanded over the power of France? In the second the D. of Aumale had an army upon the borders to debar them the entry, besides the death of the P. of Conde which fell out n●●● for his purpose: and in the last the D. of Maine took it upon him, who was 3. months before lodged upon the passages: who had at leisure chosen out all places of advantage: who also nevertheless in all that long voyage never gave them so much as one alarm. But this is their wont manner. To the end to have weapon in hand and to become arbitrators of the affairs, they will for a time be holden for Protestants. It is for the king's service if they be not alloved to fight: and when they have the bridle l●t lose, they be the first that seek excuses, and then do like very well that any man shall say, it is a dangerous and bad course to hazard the Nobility of France against an army of strangers yea and in the heart of all France.  
To be brief, will you see the good that the League hath done generally in all France. It hath kindled the fire both in all the four corners there of and in the midst also. It hath filled all the best Provinces and the best towns with famine, and hath not yet set one step forward in all the pretended enterprise. It promised to root out all the Protestants, and see they have now taken more anchor hold. It should drive them into Germany, and behold it hath brought Germany into France. It promised to root out their doctrine, and now mark how it hath brought us to strive with them who shall have the staff, and to make new lots, and as it were to re-enter into a new division with them, where before they were content with such share and condition, as we listed to grant them.  
Let us▪ therefore look whether the League that hath confounded all this Estate, hath at the least done any particular good to our estates. They were shrouded, as you all know, under the thr●edbare cloak of Commonwealth, (for so do they term it.) They had promised to discharge the people: & gave out very loud that they were the very offspring of king jews the twelft, yea and that it went hard if they were not Successors to the beautiful surname that he deserved, namely, Father of the people. Hereupon you had warning enough that you should be more overcharged then before. That a new war would bring in new impostes. That the League to the end to bind you, gave you an earnest penny, but undoubtedly only to bind you to the bargain, and to make you to pay the contract. Mark now therefore at one years end the subtlety of the league Consider what this Commonwealth hath in gendered: Seven and twenty new Edicts at one clap, which seven and twenty years could not have brought forth: Burdensome edicts edicts to the whole world. The dregs and scum of all the invention of the Italian Courtiers. What wanted there more to oppress the poor people? to fulfil the confusion of this realm? In the Estates holden complaint was made that multitude of officers in matters of Law was no other but multitude and delay of causes, & now behold an increase of precedents, counsellors and other officers in sovereign Courts & presidial seas: mark the alternative receivers for the spices, in paying rend for the multiplying, maintaining, delaying and enhaunsing of processes. Infinite times had the suppression, or ordering of the unbridled number of attorneies been propounded, and now we see them not only innumerable, but also successive or hereditary. Now I say we may see our causes that hold margin and line▪ and passing from hand to hand, from father to son in the attorneys, grow to be perpetual to our posterity. How much better had it been to have let the king alone quiet, who at the beginning of this League tended only to the re-establishing of the ministration of justice throughout his Realm? who so carefully consulted with the principal of his sovereign Courts what means were most convenient to restore all things into order▪ Long enough had we perceived that number of officers in the de●●●ng with the treasury did breed nothing but loss and diminution, so as the crown passing from the poor man, going through so many treasurers hands, was scarce worth a testern to the kings purse, which bred the counsel to restore the ancient manner, which was that all the kings coin should immediately be transported into the king's treasury, so should they spare both the auditor and the accounts: So might they save two third parts of the treasury, and by this saving the K. might without hurting himself have cased his people of one third and more. But what shall we do now, now I say that they give us new generals and generalities▪ that they set up again without any reason the elections which upon so good reasons had been suppressed? that they make the offices of the chambers of accounts hereditary and all other offices saleable? which is as much to say as to make the treasury of the Realm patrimonial, hereditary, and saleable both to the dealers themselves & to those that should judge of the dealing therein? These be the goodly successions that the controversy of succession, so out of season propounded, have taught us. Successions of pleaders and triflers: Successions of thieves & robbers of the Commonwealth, Successions of devourers, a thousand successors, even during the king's life, to this Realm seeing they succeed in his treasure.  
The king before these commotions propounded the relieving of his poor people, but now we see them reduced into the extremity of confusion: he purposed to redeem his domains, now he selleth them outright: to diminish courts and subsidies, he now doubleth them, yea he selleth them, which he never did before: he went about to abolish old tributes, now from time to time he raiseth new, and those of so many sorts that we shall need a Calepine to learn to know their names. All these new charges and oppressions, all these inventions, are the subtlety of the League which would not give the king leisure to benefit his people, as envying the wealth, peace, and restoring of this Realm: envying the honour that should redound to the king for re-establishing it: and envying the good affection & love that he should win with his people, by granting them some release after so many labours. Neither think but the captains of this league do reap the chief commodity, for besides that one part of these new Edicts is dedicated to the maintenance of the war that they have bred, and is guided by their hands, and so consequently goeth through their fingers, it is not unknown that the Duke of Guise hath gotten to himself particularly the edict of ten sellers of Sea fish, and the edict of twelve sellers of cattle at Paris, the edict that maketh us the alternative receivers for the spices, and the edict of amplification to all the seas royal to tax throughout the realm. That the D. of Maine hath also had the Lieutenants of the long robes in every province, & that they both do participate in the heredity of offices venal, & of the chamber of accounts: they that should by a new edict abolish all old tributes, even they that (as they protest) should b●ing again the world of king jews the twelft in to this Realm.  
It may be they have dealt better with the Nobility, for they seek so much as they may to mitigate their minds, and peradventure may have restored them into their pristinate eminency▪ For they entitle themselves princes of credit and they promised it: All we that have tried their armies may know whether gentlemen's houses which before were sacred, were everles regarded then by their troops, whether ever Huns, Goth or Wandals could look for worse dealing than they have had of them. Those of the contrary part (because the League sought to turn all the hatred of the war unto the K. who was forced thereto) found favour, because also through their friends they compounded half with wares & half with war. The catholics contrariwise because they gathered assurance in themselves, their privileges, services and deserts, were as it were given for a p●a●e, and entreated like enemies and strangers.  
I say not that with such extraordinary charges as the commonalty seemeth to bear, the nobility standeth more charged than they: and that is it wherein we ordinarily flatter ourselves, for under colour that we have not p●ide forth the money, they persuade us that we pay non●▪ as if when a man is let blood, the blood proceeded only from the arm that is lanced, and not from the higher part●s, which are still to suppl●e it: truly if the farm be spoiled, it is evident that it is the gentlemen that loseth: If the customs be doubled upon the merchandise, it is the gentleman that beareth it: he that weareth most silks dischargeth the custom: he that buyeth up most horses, standeth charged with the edicts of the post. He that hath largest walks of land, is most charged with the entries of his wines, corn, and flesh, with the dobling of subsidies, with the impost of hostries: let us go farther, he that hath most land hath usually most matters in law, and therefore to speak uprightly, it is we that are charged with new precedents, counsellors, lieutenants, offices etc. It is we that pay the alternatife receivers for the spices, and are to wage the hereditie of the begging attorneys. The lance is first strooken into the skin of the peasant, of the merchant, of the officer, & of the attorney, etc. The first blood, the first silver cometh from them and out of their purse: but they fill themselves again out of the higher parts: they lick themselves hole at our cost. For the peasant hath skill enough to enhance his labour and fruits: the merchant to cast his accounts & to raise the price of his merchandise, the officer by particulars to bring in the grand sum that he hath disbursed, the attorney to enlarge his lignes and set a greater rate of his writing and steps. Finally all of them do recover what they have paid aforehand, and of whom, forsooth of the gentleman who sticketh to his losses, and have no further or higher degree where to recover himself.  
Concerning our honours, you remember that in their protestation they should restore each thing into his eminency, lodge every one according to his degree, cause the governments to be restored to those from whom they pretend them to be taken, etc. And because some men were vexed even at the hearts to see certain gentlemen about the K. which through his favour and good will had at once attained to the greatest honours, this argument did they use to poison us with all: but you may call to mind that when the peace was concluded, there was no one word spoken thereof, neither seemed they to restore any one of those for whose sakes they seemed to take offence. And as for those whom in their writings they so mangled, they have since most vildly sought their favours and endeavoured by all means to bind them to them, and in deed you and they see them both greater and in further authority than ever before. I here meddle not with the kings choice, I touch not their deserts, I know there is no dignity so great, but is opened to the nobility, or to which the arm of virtue can not reach: but only I would have you mark what pretences they make and how they do dally with us at pleasure, also that we may know that they use our displeasures, our mislikes and our griefs: and so soon as they have done with us, they remember us no more.  
At the least they have done good to the Clergy: They have done somewhat for the Church, their chief pretence: the Clergy that pauned forth themselves and with so good a will sold themselves for them. Let us see, they promised to disperse the Protestants of France, and now behold they have more firmly united them; Mark how they have reunited and reconciled them with all other Nations, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Danes, Scots, Swethians and Swissers, see also how they have made them to associate themselves with our Catholic Princes, and the chief Lords of this Realm. The faction of the Religion groweth to union and ours even manifestly disperseth itself, how much better had it been to proceed by holy admonitions, by gentle conversation, and by good examples, means peraduentute too gentle for the unpatient, but at the least healthsome and assured, peradventure less agreeable to the pretended Physicians of our sickness, but at the least profitable, but at the least nothing dangerous to the diseased.  
What had the Clergy then gained? which of all the Bishops, notwithstanding whatsoever his charges, can say that he hath been made whole again? that he is any thing amended by their armies? Nay to the contrary, have not the Lords of Ambrun, Lodeue, St. Pens, & others even of late lost their bishoprics? How much of their temporalties must they sell for the recovery of them by force? Will not all their affection and heat of pledging, selling and contributing Bee first wasted like smoke.  
But will you also see that it was but a pretence. The captains of the league do skirmish together as it seemeth: For when there was any speech of preaching in France, they wrested forth the king's Edict expressly to stop it, yet have they permitted and consented that the Gentlemen of the contrary part, compounding for their houses, shall have free exercise of the Religion, so that from their said houses they make no war against them. They have offered the like conditions to other towns, castles and particular persons, They suffer the reistres in the midst of their armies to have their ministers and sermons, who have preached in their Churchyards and Churches, yea and celebrated the supper openly in their camp. That which they permit to some, why should not the K. permit to all? Wherefore may not the K. permit that to his Subjects which the; so voluntarily do suffer in strangers? Wherefore shall that be a ●●te of heresy in the king, which in them is zeal of the Church, meritorious or venial? Wherefore should it be damnable or mortal to their Superior?  
These men have in the end rob and polluted the holy places: these men have spoiled and ransommed the priests and monks: these men under pretence of piety have committed 1000 impieties: these men upon a merriment have soaked out all our goods & drowned us in all mischiefs. Of such and so great inconveniences what good can redound to us? to the commons? to the nobility? to the clergy particularly or generally? And who did ever any mischief, at the least if he list to be obstinate in it, but for hope of good. But may I yet sale more? what good have they done to themselves? For God hath in such sort cursed their actions that in the mean time while they ween to fee their confraries in the Towns under pretence of that authority that the war granteth them: The best place● that they had surprised, are withdrawn from their subjection. Again & Auxonne with some other, though newly bought again by the K. and restored into the League: And note that upon the least discontentment this example will shortly be followed in all other places.  
What followeth? Sith this League is unprofitable to itself, also that was is hurtful to all: Seeing that in one and twenty months, being in greatest force, it hath done nothing to any purpose, but in am of going forward hath lost ground, what shall we do but have recourse to some other remedie● and never stand obstinately in this: in this corrosive and venomous Antimony which expelleth both good and bad together: and many times the good rather than the bad: which under colour of driving forth the hurtful humours will make us void blood, and peradventure our lives in the blood. Truly we must address ourselves to our king: he is a merciful Prince and one that loveth his people, ●ee knoweth that a king dieth in the ●eath of his Realm: he is vndoubted●●e wounded in us deeper than ourselves: he will pity himself in us and ●● our wounds. Let us therefore pri●atelie open them unto him & show ●im such as threaten us. Let us with ●pen throat tell him what harm the ●eague doth us. Let us beseech him according to his singular wisdom to ●●nde some remedy, some durable remedy, such as may consist: with the ●sposition of our bodies: some such comedy as our weakness can bear: ●●me such remedy as may convert & ●●pple the humours, not such as wee●●g to purge, shall wholly overthrow ●●r body: Let us above all things ●aie to God to turn the sweet eye of ●●s mercy toward us: For who is able ●● bear the rigorous countenance of ●●s justice? That it may please him ●●th his spirit to assist our King in ru●●g his Sceptre. That he will vouchsafe to inspire him with good council ●●d to raise him up good Counsellors: to endue him with force and courage to heal the humours and to stop v● the wounds of this Rea●lme: that to say, to quench the cursed subtleties of the league, so to restore a holy, happy, and permanent peace to this Estare.   
FINIS.  

Imprinted at London by Abel jeffes, for Thomas Cadman. 1587.