A CONGRATULATION TO FRANCE, UPON THE HAPPY ALLIANCE WITH SPAIN. Dedicated to the Queen. With the order and challenge of the Knights of Fame, to their opposites. LEWIS · THE XIII · KING OF FRANCE. portrait of Louis XIII of France Printed for T. Thorp. and to be sold by W. Burr. 1612. To the Queen. MADAM. FRance hath not without cause had recourse to your Majesty as to her sole remedy, and now Spain entreats you to adorn her Crown with our Flower de Luce's, for it seemeth that Heaven hath made you the guardian of peace, and placed you in this world as the true Queen unto whom he hath appointed the total government thereof; showing us there by, that his pleasure is, that as one MARY brought peace into the world, so your Majesty should distribute it to us. For this cause Madam, your Majesty maybe pleased to give me leave to proclaim the glories thereof, and sing them on the Theatre of my labours, that the whole world may be acquainted with our happiness. Myself being your majesties Most humble and obedient subject and servant. F. de Menantel. S. Denis. A Congratulation to France on the happy alliance with Spain. I I is not without cause, that those Monarchies are held happy, whose affections Heaven hath united: because in the renewing of Kings, God rewardeth his people according to the merit of their lives: for if I forget not, I have read of Dionysius the tyrant, Heliogabalus, and Nero, who employed their power and authority cruelly, and to the hurt of their people, which is an evident sign, that God had forsaken them, by giving them such cruel Princes. Our France is free from those miseries, and without blushing may term itself extraordinary happy, by having for a long time Kings sacred and chosen by that great God, who calls them his eldest and most Christian sons: a matter which may stir us up to give him thanks, and to entreat him to continue this favour, that we may nourish our glory under the wings of his almighty power. Do we not owe him this acknowledgement, for taking such special care of our peace? Let us consider the greatness of the present benefit he hath bestowed upon us, having given us a Queen, who is the pearl of the world, the ornament of Heaven, the epitome of all virtues: For this, we ought to redouble our prayers, and seek hereafter better to please him, I mean by changing our old conditions, and framing them a new in the model of his holy commandments: the which we may easily do, our minds being freed from the rage of ambition which possessed us when Spain was an enemy to our France: and now I do assure myself our good Genius will be auspicious, so long as her Majesty shall remain among us. What is there more to be admired then our present government? who would ever have thought that upon the even of war, losing our great Henry, we should have enjoyed such tranquillity? verily it is the work of Heaven, and we must of necessity so believe it, unless we think it to be our great Henry's fame, which peradventure hath left an immortal terror behind him to awe other Kings, who being still amazed at the report of his valour, have not dared to make any attempt upon his lawful heir, unto whom they fear he hath bequeathed his courage as well as greatness: The which we shall undoubtedly find to be true by those lively signs which may be discerned in him. O happy day when her Majesty was chosen Regent. Blessed of God are you my Lords who gave your consents; you may truly say that the holy Ghost spoke in you at that time when you committed the State's government to her; Thereby you declare that you worthily deserve your places, & that questionless you had a care of the public peace. O let your sacred Majesties, who with a liberal hand gives us means to serve your greatness, drawing your poor France forth of the dangerous precipice of war, making it triumphant on the world's Theatre; You I say who with your only looks brave the greatest powers of Europe, preserve and make much of your lives, that you may eternize our peace, which can last no longer than you reign in the world, where all true Frenchmen your humble servants will beseech the divine Majesty that it may be so. For what greater favours could we hope for then those we now enjoy? by what other way then this could her Majesty have procured our good? There is none so simple but knows that Spain is more than able to embroil our peace, and by consequent her alliance most profitable for France. Her Majesty and my Lords of the Council, whose understanding pierceth Heaven, have maturely disposed of this proposition, and can make no appeal from this resolution, being the only means to try our forces against the Turk and to reconquer that which our unbridled ambition lost do we not suppose but that this consideration did reunite the wandering affections of our Kings, who wearied with civil dissension have resolved upon this design for when did you ever read that civil war reigned so long among the Turks, as it hath done in Christendom. Our Kings are children of a spiritual father; believe in him, live under his law: what reason then have we to seek and desire the ruin, of our brethren. Let us employ our courage in making war upon that tyrant, a sworn enemy to our religion, and not make our neighbour's bowels scabbards for our swords; this will more renown us, and our death will be more glorious before God: the way is traced before us, and an occasion offered by the contracted marriages of our king with the Infanta of Spain, and is doubly confirmed by that of the Princess of France, with the Prince of Spain: all excuses are vain. O Lord thou art mighty, thy goodness is incomprehensible and men can not sound the depth of thy judgements: where is that dead Chaos which we thought to have beheld? where are those preparations which our Mars had levied in France to glut our ambition? O thou great God hast thou caused a second MARY to be borne in the East? Hast thou ordained her from her birth to prevent our miseries? I verily think it, seeing that by her alone thou hast freed us from our long troubles: Finish O good God, finish this work, lest some wandering fire fall into the trenches of our peace, and blow up the mine of our hope, which if it should happen we were then at the pits brink of our former miseries: yet I do not imagine that her Majesty and our Princes would be so merry and joyful as to proclaim triumphs, if they were not assured of our peace, and that thou haddest possessed them with a desire to effect it. This O Lord we hearty beseech thee to grant, and we yield unto thee the same thanks which thy dear servant David did after that he had vanquished his enemies, and was peaceably seated in his Kingdom. THE KNIGHTS OF Fames Challenge to all those that will oppose themselves against them. Understanding by the Oracles that the French Hercules after his travails had builded the Palace of Felicity, and that the Destinies had reserved the first entrance into it for us, and the proof of those which deserve the second, to our Lances, we are come thither upon the report of the Marriages of the greatest Kings of Europe, to procure witnesses of our victory, and to show ourselves Knights worthy of imitation. For without losing the title of Invincible, which our deeds have purchased, we will keep and defend that Palace against all men, and maintain That the beauty which we reverence is without compare, and her actions blameless. That they are so good as they can not be bettered. That we alone deserve to publish her glory and that none ought to aspire to ours. Nevertheless the fame of the assaillants shall not be small, having such authors of their defeat be it that they come to us as wearied with living in the world, or else desirous to have us end their days, seeing that the honour to fight with us is greater, then that of vanquishing all other men. We Almidor, Leontides, Alpheus, Lisander, Arganto, will maintain this challenge in the place royal of Paris on the twenty five day of the Month of MARS, who inspire us. THE DECREES OF the Lists, and order of the courses at the Quintyn. THE Defendants shall enter first into the place, and none after them but those that have charge of the triumphs, assaillants, or train. 2. The assailants shall ent● with vizards, liveries, shields, names, arms of their houses, and imprese. 3. They shall enter the lists at one of the clock after dinner, if they mean to run, and shall cause a certain number of torches to be brought thither. 4. They cannot enter the lists without the leave of the judges of the field. 5. They shall run according to he order as they entered, and each of them only with two ●ances. 6. He That breaks his lance from the chin of the Quintin to the eyes, wins one course, from thence upward, two; in the small shield, three; in any other part nothing. 7. The lance shall not be accounted broken unless the staff fall in two pieces. 8. Who loseth his lance, sword plume, bridle, spur, or stirrup, loseth the course, and if he breaks not, wins nothing. 9 Who loseth his saddle, or hits the great shield is to be thrust forth of the lists. 10. He that falls from his horse incurs the like penalty. 11. The value of the reward is at the choice of the assaillants. 12. At their return from the lists, all of them shall keep the same order as they did at their entrance. The rest is referred to the judges. Published at Paris the 13. day of the month of march. 1612. FINIS.