A JUDICIOUS VIEW OF THE BUSINESSES which are at this time between FRANCE and the House of AUSTRIA. Most useful, to know the present posture of the affairs of all Christendom.  
Translated out of French, by a Person of Honour.  
LONDON, Printed by W. Wilson, for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the Anchor in the Lower walk in the New-Exchange, 1657.   

A CHARACTER OF this Worke.  
THis is the Map of the present interesses of Princes, the quintessence of the History of five or six Ages, and of as many Kingdoms; the State-resolve of a deep and consummate Politician, perfected by the perusing of many Volumes of Histories, and by the experience of many years.  
I am inclined to believe that these were private Notes of some great Statesman, gathered for readiness in his public employments. And, that they were published without his name, makes me suspect that they came out without his leave. Howsoever, this is a Treasure for all that desire to know the world, and penetrate into the inside of businesses; a help of memory for them that have read many Histories, and an ease of labour for such as want leisure to read them.   

The true case of the businesses which are at this time between the two Houses, of France and Austria.  

PREFACE.  
THe two Houses of France and Austria, are the greatest and most important of Christendom, and such as draw to their motion all the other Crowns. Between these two Houses there hath been many Wars, Alterations, Treaties, Truces, and Peace's, since the rising of that of Austria; of which we may assign the beginning at the marriage of Maximilian, Son to the Emperor Frideric 3. with Mary the inheritrice of Charles, the last Duke of Burdundy, Prince of the seventeen united Provinces of netherlands, dead before Nancy, in the year 1477.  
For the intellience of all their Divisions, Truces, and Alliances, I frame this discourse which shall consist of five Chapters.  
In the first, The whole state of Europe shall be set down, the several Princes thereof, their Religion, and what neighbourhood and dependence they have among themselves.  
In the second, It shall be examined by what degrees the House of Austria is entered into the Empire, and into all those great estates which she now enjoyeth by her two Branches of Spain and Germany.  
In the third, The differences between the two Crowns shall be discussed; what right the House of France hath in Catalonia, Portugal, Navarra, Naples, Milan, etc. Also what claim the House of Austria hath to Burgundy, Britain Provence, etc. These are those disputable Rights which have begot so many Divisions and Wars between the Princes, and an unreconcilable hatred between the Nations.  
In the fourth Chapter, The businesses shall be presented, which passed between the two Kingdoms, from the Treaty of Arras, in the year 1435. to the Treaty of Veruins, in 1598. Wars, Battles, Treaties, Truces, and Peace's.  
The fifth, shall relate all that past from the Treaty of Veruins, till now.   

CHAP. I. The Princes that govern Europe  

Paragraphe I.  
EUrope, the least of the three parts of the world known to the ancient Geographers, and the most Northerly, but the most populous, and that within which almost all Christendom is comprehended, hath on the South the Mediterranean Sea, and part of the Ocean, and gins at the Cap St. Vincent, in the extremity of Portugal, in the Kingdom of Algarba, near the Straight of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea gins, which takes several names, as it toucheth upon several Provinces, as Spain, France, Italy, Sicily, Greece. The Isle of Candie is the utmost of Europe that way, and it is divided from Africa by the Mediterranean Sea.  
Eastward ascending to the North, Europe is bounded again by the Mediterranean Sea, under the names of the Aegean Sea, called now Archipelago, Hellospont now Burdanelles, or the Straight of Gallipoli, Propontis now Mar de Marmora, Bosphorus, Thracius now the Straight of Constantinople, Pontus Euxinus now the black Sea, or Mar major. Higher it is bounded by Meotides Paludes, and the River Tanais, now Don, remounting to its spring. And thenceforward a line is imagined drawn to the North, butting either at the Golph of St. Nicholas, or some such other place thereabout, in the great Duke of Moscovia's Country: for that northern Tract unknown to ancient Geographers is yet so little known, that the limits of Europe that way, could never be well assigned.  
On all the East-side, Europe neighboureth upon the great Asia, and is Occidental to it.  
On the North-side, ancient Geographers have set no limits to Europe, but have comprehended these Northern extremities either under the name of Hyperborean hills, although there be no hills in that Tract; or under the name of Mare Glaciale or the frozen Sea, which we may take from the Golph of St. Nicol●s; or the mouth of the River Oby, unto the Sea which is about Norway and Finmarch, and so towards the Isles of Freezland and Island. On that side, Europe butts upon the Pole, and is not near any considerable Lands, some few Lands only, ill inhabited, as Nova Zembla, and Niewland.  
On the Westside, Europe hath the great Ocean, from the Isles of Freesland and Is-land, to the Cap of St. Vincent, which is the extremity of Portugal. And that Ocean takes divers names according to the divers Countries that it toucheth; as the Britannique Lands, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Zealand, Flanders, the Straight of Calais, the coasts of Normandy, Britain, Poitou, Saintonge, Guienne, the golph of Bayonne, the coasts of Biscay, Gallicia, Portugal, Algerke, to the Cap St. Vincent.  
These are the limits, and as it were the four walls which enclose all that is comprehended under the name of Europe. The length whereof may be taken from the Cap St. Vincent, to the golph S. Nicholas, or the mouth of the River Oby, which is two thousand French common leagues, or as far northward as one will. The breadth, from Morea, towards the Isle Cythera, to the North towards Finmarch and Lapland, which is twelve of fifteen hundred leagues.  
A more exact description of the Topography of each Country is not for this place. Here only we will enumerate the States, contained within that extent, and that but in the great; as much as is necessary to understand that which belongs to the two Houses of France and Austria, the most considerable of Europe, of Christendom at least.  
We shall be begin that enumeration by the West, and from thence passing to the East, we shall turn to the North, and there end.   

Paragraphe II.  
The first Prince on the West of Europe, is the King of Spain, who bears the name of the House of Austria, besides that which he hath in Africa, and in the East and West Indies. Besides a number infinite of Lands, Caps, & Havens, from the Isles Azores, to the Cap of good hope, and from that Cap to the extremity of the East, towards the Molukes and Philippine Lands.  
1. That which he holds in Europe, is comprehended in that Peninsula enclosed within the Ocean, the Med terranean Sea, and the Pyrenean hills under several names of Kingdoms, as we shall say in the following Chapter. And these distinguished into three general Jurisdictions, of Castilia, Arragon, and Portugal. It is true that since the late Wars, the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia, have clipped so much of his Domtnions, and the French have taken from him the County of Roussillon.  
2. Upon the coasts of Spain, he possesseth the two Baleares, Mallorca, and Minorca, and the two Lands in old time called Ophiusae, now Ivica and Fromentera.  
3. In Italy, he hath all the Kingdom of Naples, which is almost the half of it; and the most Easterly part from Cajeta or Fondi, to the golph of Tarento, and the Straight of Messina.  
4. In the same Italy, he hath the Duchy of Milan, with the territories of Pavia, Tortona, Cremona, etc.  
5. Upon the coasts of the Tuscan Sea, he hath Final, Piombino, Porto Hercule, and Orbitello. Of late, the Prince of Monaco hath shaken off his yoke. In Toscana, the great Duke of Florence doth him homage for the Commonwealth of Sienna, and oweth him service.  
6. In that Sea about Italy, he hath the Isles of Sardima, and Sicily, and is sovereign of the Isle of Malta (which the old Geographers reckon among the African Lands). The great Master of that Island, oweth him some homage for it.  
7. In the Celtique Gaul he hath the Franche County, or the County of Burgundy; and in the Duchy of Burgundy, he hath the County of Charrolois.  
8. In the Belgic Gaul, he hath possessed, till the end of the last age, all that was comprehended under the name of the seventeen Provinces. He keeps to this day the Dutchies of Luxemburg & Limburg, the Duchy of Brabant, but pared about by the loss of Maestritcht, the Bose Breda and Bergupzom; part of the Duchy of Gelder's, the Counties of Namur, Hainant, Artois, and Flanders, all maimed with the loss of some limbs, by our late Wars. Also the Marquisat of the holy Empire, which is Antwerp, and the Principality of Mechlen: The remnant of these seventeen Provinces, is in the hand of the States of the united Provinces, besides that which the King of France hath taken.  
In all that large extent of Lands, the Spaniard suffereth the exercise of no Religion but the Roman. Though he go for a great sovereign, yet many of his Lands depend from other Princes. The See of Rome hath great pretences upon the sovereignty of Arragon: Heacknowledgerh without contradiction, the sovereignty of the Church over his Kingdom of Naples: Yet it is pretended that he oweth the same homage for Sicily. For the Duchy of Milan, and other Lands, which he holds in Italy, he must acknowledge the Empire, from which he hath received the investiture of the same. Franche County, is an imperial fee; as also the Provinces of netherlands not depending of France, did owe homage to the Empire: And in the year 1608. when the truce was made between Spain and Holland; these two States disputing of their sovereignty in the first Article, the Emperor Rodolphus framed an opposition against that Article, and claimed the sovereignty as belonging to the Empire, but the Treaty passed without any reflection to that claim. Finally, although the Spaniard acknowledge our Kings no more, neither for Flanders nor for Artois, it is not well resolved yet, by what right he hath shaken off the yoke; and the French pretend that the Treaties of Madrid, Cambray, and Crespy in Valois, which contain that session, have not been authorized by the general States of France.  
The King of Spain being possessor of such a great extent of Lands, is a neighbour to most of the Christian Princes, as will be showed more at large in the second Chapter, and hath always some difference with them. The now King of Spain, is Philip the iv of the Roman Religion.   

Paragraphe III.  
Here we will look upon the King of France, whose state is comprehended in the old Galley, Narbonensis, Aquitanica, Celtica, and Belgica; yet doth he not possess them all: the whole Narbonensis belongs to him, excepting Avignon, Nice, Savoy, Geneva, and Orange. The whole Aquitanica is his, since the small principality of Bearn (which with small reason hath been pretended to be sovereign in her Rights and Customs) hath been united to the Crown, and began to have the same Prince, by the coming of Henry the fourth to the Crown. The whole Celtica belongs likewise to the King of France, excepting only the Franch County, and the imperial Town of Besancon.  
Of the Belgica, the King of France hath the least part, The I'll of France, Pays de Caux Boulonnois, Picardi, Beauvoisis Champagne, Brie; And by good or bad title, the Towns of Mets, Thoul, and Verdun; of which in the first invasion, he declared himself Protector only. By the late Wars, he hath made himself Master of most part of Lorraine, of the Town of Brisach, and of other Towns of Alsatia, beyond the Rhine.  
The subjects of the King of France, are commonly Roman Catholics, yet Protestants are tolerated in the State.  
The King of France is neighbouring upon Spain, by the Pyrenean hills. On that side the French and the Spaniards have not much troubled one another but of late years, in which the French have unfortunately attempted Spain about Fontarabie; but fortunately about Roussillon and Catalonia. But about the Low Countries, and Franche County, which lie open to both the Nations, there hath been much stir and action.  
On the side of Provence and Dauphin, the Duke of Savoy is neighbour to France; for Savoy and Piedmont join to the foresaid Provinces. The County of Avignon belonging to the Pope, is enclosed within Provence. By Dauphin, the French touch the Commonwealth of Geneva. By the Country of Bresse, and the Bailliages of Gez and Verromey, they enter within Switzerland, into the Canton of Berne. By Champagne they have the Duke of Lorraine for their neighbour; but now they are possessed of his Country. So all their neighbours are weak, the King of Spain excepted. The present King of France, is Lewis the XIV. of the Roman profession.   

Paragraphe IU.  
In this Paragraphewe will set down all the Princes contained within the ancient Gauls, besides the King of France.  
1. In Gallia Narbonensis, the Duke of Savoy holds the Duchy of Savoy, the Countries of Chablais and Tarantaise, and the Town of Chambery; and upon the Sea coast near the River of Var, the Town and County of Nice, which was sometimes a member of Provence, and being upon the River of Var, it is partly in France, partly in Italy.  
2. The Pope holds the County of Venaissyn or Avignon, an ancient member of Provence, with the four Bishoprics belonging to it, Avignon, Carpentras, Cavaillon, and Vezon. There also is Orange, belonging to the House of Nassau.  
3. The City of Geneva with her Territory, made herself a sovereign Commonwealth about the year 1535. when the Duke of Savoy, the Bishop of Geneva, and the City being in contention about their right, the Citizens changed Religion, forced the Bishop to fly, and shut their Gates against the Duke of Savoy. But indeed that Town, and all the other States, were pieces depending from the Empire. But the Emperor's power being by succession of time confined within Germany only, retain almost nothing out of it, but the shade of their ancient authority.  
4. In the Celtique Gaul, Franch County belongs to the King of Spain,  
5. The City of Besancon, enclosed within Franch County, is an imperial City.  
6. Then many little sovereign Princes; the chief of them, the thirteen Cantons of the Suitzers, enclosed within the Alps, between Franch County and the Rhine. Of them, four be Protestants; Berne (which alone is almost as large as all the others) Basel, Zurick, and Schaffouse, which is a Town beyond the Rhine. Seven Catholic (as they style themselves) two greater, Friburg and Soleurre, and the five little Cantons, Uri, Switz, Underwall, Lucerne; and Zough, and two half Catholic, half Protestants, Glaris and Appenzel. All these Commonwealths making one body of State, have their Associates; the Abbot of Saint Gall, the commonalties of Valley, and the Bishop of Zion, with some other Towns, and beyond the Rhine, the three Leagues of the Grisons.  
7. To these add many pieces about the Rhine, which are held to be parts of Germany, as the County of Montbeliard, which the Kings of France have bought of late years of the Dukes of Wirtinberg. Alsatia beyond the Rhine, which did belong to the House of Austria, and consisteth of imperial Towns, and other Towns which the King of France now holds. Then the Palatinate on this side of the Rhine, which is now partly in the hands of the Spaniards, partly in that of the King of France and the Protestants.  
8. The Duchy of Lorraine, which before acknowledged the Duke, is now almost altogether in the King of Frances his hands.  
9 The principality of Liege, is depending from the Bishopric thereof.  
10. The Duchy of Juliers, and great part of the Duchy of Cleves, now divided between the Dukes of Newburg, and the Marquis of Brandenburg.  
11. The Archbishopric of Treves on both sides of the River of Mosella.  
12. The seventeen Provinces of netherlands, four of which are Dutchies, Brabant, Luxembourg, Limbourg, and Guelderland. They belong to the Spaniard, part of Guelderland excepted, and some Towns of Brabant; the Marquisat of the holy Empire, which is the Town of Antwerp. Seven Counties, Namur, Hainault, Artois, Flanders. These four are in the hands of the Spaniard, excepting that which the French hold in Artois and Hainault; and the sluice and other places which the Hollanders hold in Flanders. The three other Counties are, Zealand, Holland, and Zutphen. There are five Lordships more, Mechlen which the Spaniard holds, and Utrecht, Overissell, West-Friesland, and Groaning, which are possessed by the Hollanders. All these are commonly called the seventeen Provinces of Netherlands, and the Belgic Gaul, although some of them be out of the extent of Gaul, and beyond the Rhine, as Overissel, Friesland, Groaning, and part of Guelderland. All these estates contained within the extent of Gaul, are of no great importance, neither are they able to resist the French, excepting those that are in the hand of the Spaniard, or protected by the Empire. To these, Cambray must be added, an Imperial and Archi-episcopal Town held by the Spaniard.   

Paragraphe V.  
Here let us enumerate all the Princes contained in that great Peninsula called Italy, between the golph of Venice, the coasts of Genoa, Toscana, Naples, the golph of Tarento, the Jonique Sea, and the Alps. Within that extent there are many Princes; the most considerable are six.  
1. The King of Spain holds the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, with some places upon the Sea coast, and the sovereignty of the Town of Sienna.  
2. The Pope with the Church of Rome, besides the sovereignty over Naples and Parma, holds in proper dominion above three hundred miles in length, and a hundred in breadth, beginning from Caieta to Ferrara, and to the Country of the Venetians. He possesseth the whole Latium, commonly called Campagna di Roma, where the City of Rome stands, part of Toscana, with the Territory of St Peter, the Towns of Perousa, Viterbo, Orvietta, the Duchy of Spoleto, where Marca d' Ancona is seated; the Duchy of Urbino, lately devolved to the See of Rome, by the extinction of the family of the Roveros which held it in fee; the Towns of Bolonia and Ravenna, the Duchy of Ferrara, returned to the Church under Pope Clement the VIII. an. 1598. by the extinction of the lawful males of the family of Est. Also in the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy and Town of Benevent. In these Countries there is above fifty Bishoprics, and above a million and a half of inhabitants.  
3. The Commonwealth of Venice possesseth (besides the city of Venice seated within the Marshes of the Mediterranean Sea) within the continent of Italy, Histria, a Peninsula; the Countries of Friuli, called in old time Forum Julii, Milan, Vicenza, Verona, Brixia, Bergumo; and out of Italy from Histria, to the Commonwealth of Ragousa, almost all that is on that coast of the golph of Venice, where the Towns of Zara Sebennico, Spalaro, Cataro. And every were Venice bordereth upon the House of Austria, and shareth with it the Countries of Dalmatia and Slavonia. In the Mediterranean sea, Venice holds the Isles of Corfou, Zante, Cephalenia, Cerigo, and the great Island of Candy, now disputed to them by the Turk, and even before the Turks invasion, Candy called itself a sovereign Commonwealth, acknowledging for their head Francisco Erizzo, of an ancient family. In the year 1470. one of his Ancestors being Governor of the Isle of Negrepont, was taken by the Turks, and sawed in two, contrary to the faith given to him.  
8. The great Duke of Toscana is possessed with the estate of three ancient Commonwealths, Pisa, Florence, and Sienna; his Territories run along the coasts of the Toscan Sea, where he hath also the Isle of Elva. The now Duke is Ferdinand II.  
9 The Commonwealth of Genoa, possesseth almost all that which is comprehended under the name of Riviera di Genoa, and Liguria. They hold also the Island of Corsica.  
6. The Prince of Piedmont is the same as the Duke of Savoy; He holds in Italy, Valdosta, Vercellois, Piedmont, the Marquisat of Salluces. The now Duke is Charles Emanuel.  
Besides these six considerable Princes, there are some of a lower form.  
The Duke of Mantua, whose Country is compassed by the Venetians on the one side, and the Duchy of Milan, and the River of Po on the other.  
The Duke of Modena and Rhegio, which is an imperial Fee, held by the remnants of the family of Est or A●estini.  
The Duke of Parma and Placentia, who besides that Fee of which he was invested by Pope Paul the III. hath, or claimeth as a proper inheritance of the house Farnesi, the Duchy of Castro in Tescana near Rome, out of which he was lately expelled by the Pope.  
The County of Mirandola, held by the family of Pici.  
The Duchy of Montferrat, sometimes the patrimony of the house of the Paleologi, is at this time in the hands of the Duke of Mantua. There stands Cazal of St. Vaast, the so much disputed place.  
The small Commonwealth of Luca in Toscana, between the two States of Florence and Genoa.  
Besides these, two estates are attributed to Italy, though far from it; the one is the Commonwealth of Ragousa in Slavonia, upon the Golph, in old time called Epidaurus. It is sovereign, yet payeth to the Turk her next neighbour, a tribute of fifteen thousand Sequins yearly.  
The other Estate is Malta, with the next Island Goza, possessed by the Religion of Saint John of Jerusalem. But that Prince hath but the shade of a Sovereign, being as for his person a Religious depending of the Pope, and punishable by the Pope, and the Island of Malta, acknowledging the King of Spain as a dependence of Sicily.  
In all these States of Italy, there is no exercise of any Religion but the Roman.  
Although all these Princes will be acknowledged Sovereign, there is none properly so but the Pope, the Venetians, and the Commonwealth of Genoa. All the others are either Imperial Lands, as Mantua, Milan, Montferrat, Piedmont, Modena, Mirdndula, Florence, or depend of the Pope, as Naples, Sicily, Parma, and Placentia.   

Paragraphe VI.  
In the end of the Golph of Venice Eastward, lieth Greece, possessed by the Turk, who holds all that was comprehended in the names of Peloponnesus, Achaia, Epirus, Macedo nia, Thracia, with the great City of Constantinople. Nearer to the River of Danubius, and above the mountains of Thracia, he hold Bulgaria and Servia, which were the ancient Misiae, Bossena, great part of Hungary, as fare as Gran, or Strigonium, near the Town of Commorra, and part of Slavonia and Dalmatia. By those more Occidental Countries, he toucheth the Lands of the Venetians, and the the House of Austria. Beyond Danubius, he is acknowledged by the three Vaivodes, or Princes of Transylvania, Moldavia, and Walachia.  
The Turk holds also all the Lands of the Mediterranean Sea, from Candia to Pontus Euxinus. Beyond the mouth of Danubius, and the coast of Pont Euxin, he holds as fare as the River Tyrus or Niestra; And higher in Taurica Chersonesus, the Town of Cafa, in old time Theodosia. His Dominion on that side butts upon the River Tanais, where his Frontier is the Town of Assou, taken about ten years ago upon the Muscovite. In all that Tract, though the Turk and the Mahometan Religion govern, most part of his People profess the Religion of Christ under the Patriarch of Constantinople. Yet there are many of the Roman Religion in Hungary, Bossena, and Servia. Transylvania is Protestant.   

Paragraphe VII.  
Above Pont Euxin towards Meotides Paludes, there is a great extent of Countries bordering upon Podolia and Muscovia. And within that Sea is that Peninsula, sometimes called Taurica Chersonesus, now Precops. All that Tract is called Tartary Precopensis, or the Crim Tartar; or about four hundred years ago, a Herd, for Army of Yartars, invaded that Country. It is now one of the considerable States of Europe, possessed by a Mahometan Prince, named Cantemiro. It bordereth upon the Turks towards Pont Euxin, and is in league with them. Westward it joins with Poland, Northwards with Muscovia, and hath War almost continually with these two Nations.   

Paragraphe VIII.  
Beyond the dominions of Poland, there is a River called Danambra, in old time Borysthenes, which severeth Sarmatia, (now called Poland) from the old Scythia Europea, which comprehends that large tract of Land between Borysthenes and Tanais, and Northward unto the frozen Sea. This is that great Estate of Muscovia, denominated from the Capital City Mosko; The Prince, the great Duke of Moscovia, besides that part of Europe, stretcheth his Dominion very far into great Asia. He that reigned when the Author writ this Book, which was in the year 1644. was Michael Fedorowitz, who was elected in the year 1612. In the confusion of Civil Wars after the extinction of the antitient Royal Family. That People is Christian, but of the rudest sort, acknowledging the Patriarch of Constantinople. Westward they join with Poland, Southward with the Crim Tartar, and with each of them have always some war.   

Paragraphe IX.  
All the Country from the River of Odera, in Germany, or at least from the River of Vistula, or Weissell, as far as Borysthenes, and Northward as far as the point of the Baltique Sea above Livonia; All that Country, I say, called anciently Sarmatia, containeth now the Kingdom of Poland, consisting of the greater and lesser Poland; Russia alba, the Country of the Cossacks; Podolia, and other Provinces with the great Duchy of Lituania near Borysthenes. That State of Poland, whose capital City is Cracovia, joineth Southward with the Lands of the Empire, and Hungary so much as belongs to the House of Austria, and with Transylvania and Moldavia; Eastward it joins with the Tartar and Moscovite. The Court of Poland hath been of the Roman Religion hitherto: What it will be hereafter the success of the present Wars will show. That State tolerates all sorts of Religions. Livonia or Liefland in the Baltic Sea is accounted as an appurtenance of Poland. Yet, because three Estates meet there, Poland on the South, Muscovia on the East, and North, and Sweden on the West; it is always disputed between these three Crowns, and is the occasion of great Wars, which were appeased in some part by the peace between Poland and Sweden, An. 1635. but newly revived.   

Paragraphe X.  
By an arm of the great Ocean, that Mediterranean Sea of the North is form, which is called the Baltique Sea: There the Dominions of Sweden and Denmark are seated, two considerable States.  
The Kingdom of Sweden comprehends great part of the ancient Gotthia, the Town and Duchy of Stockholm, the great Duchy of Finland, and Northward Botnia, Scrifinia, and other unknown Countries. The present King is Carolus Gustavus, by the session of his Cousin- German, Christina Daughter to the famous Gustavus Adolphus. The whole Kingdom of Sweden is Lutheran: Yet in the North, there is some remnant of the ancient Idolatry of Pagans.  
The other State is that of Denmark, composed of the Hanse Teutonique, called anciently Cimbrica-Chersonesus, which is a corner of great Germany, containing the Duchy of Holstein, Juitland, and Schleswick. A second part of that Estate lieth in Lands, the chief of them Zealand, where Coppenhagen is seated, the Capital City of the Kingdom. The third part is in the Peninsula of the Baltique Sea, and herein the Kingdom of Norway and Finmarch. To that State also belong the Lands of Friesland and Island, far in the North. They are all Lutherans. The strength and wealth of that Kingdom, lieth in the passage of the Sund, which makes it considerable to all that traffic to or from the Baltique Sea.   

Paragraphe. XI.  
From thence sailing Westward, one comes to the great Brittanique Lands, of which we that inhabit them, know more than this Author; and therefore leave that little which he saith of them.   

Paragraphe XII.  
Being now come to the West, we meet with the most considerable piece of Europe, which is the Empire of Germany. The Empire begun by Julius Caesar, but founded by Augustus, possessed all the known Countries of the West. But was greatly diminished about the year of our Lord 400. for then by the incursions of the Goths, Ostrogoths, alan's, Huns, Herules, Vandals, Frankes, and others; many States were founded. And finally, the Empire ceased in the West, altogether in the year 445. by the death of Augustulus, and the whole Empire of the West was divided into many States.  
In the year 800. the Empire of the West begun afresh in the person of Charlemaigne, who under that name, possessed all the Gauls, part of Spain, almost all Italy, the great Germany, Hungary, Slavonia, part of Poland and Denmark, and other Northern Countries. But his posterity having degenerated, that Empire went from his Family about the year 912. and after a long dispute about it, between the Italian and Germane Princes, Oath Duke of Saxony made himself Master of it: And from that time, that which remains of the Empire, hath continued in the hands of Germane Princes.  
That which is called the Empire at this day, hath more shadow than substance. I call a shadow all the pretences of the Emperor out of Germany, which are worn out with age and lost, or remain with small vigour, as the pretences of Sovereignty over the Princes of Italy and the Low-Countries, Savoy, Franche County, Besancon and the like. In Germany he hath some real and effective power. Germany at this time comprehends all that Country between the border of Hungary and Poland on the East, the Baltique Sea and Denmark on the North, the Germanic Sea and France on the West, and the River of Rhine. and the Alps on the South. Neither is the Emperor absolute every where, or in the most part of that large space. For it is divided into ten Circles, or great Provinces, which have a proper right to assemble themselves to look to their own businesses, and send Deputies to the general Diets of the Empire. And in every one of these Circles, there be many free Cities, and many Secular and Ecclesiastical Princes.  
The chief are the seven Electours, three Ecclesiastical, the Archbishops of Mentz, Collen, and Treves, four secular, the Count Palatine, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, and the marquis of Brandenhurg. And next to these the Duke of Banteres, the Duke of Wirtenberg, Luneburg, Mechelburg, Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse, and many others. But above all these houses, that of Austria is considerable, of which we must speak in the next Chapter; for, besides the title of Emperor by election, now continued in their family for many descents; they possess their ancient Patrimony, Austria, Stiria, Carinthia, Carnia, Tirolis, Elzas. They hold also Bohemia and that little part of Hungary, which remains unto the Christians. All Germany is divided between Papists, Lutherans, and Calvinists. These three and the Mahometan, and the Greek Religion, are the principal Religions known in Europe.    

CHAP. II. By what degrees the house of Austria is come to those great Estates which it possesseth.  
IT is certain, that among the Christian Princes, the two most considerable Families are those of France and Austria. And although it be known that the house of France hath all the Prerogatives of Antiquity, Nobility, and Glory above the other; yet that of Austria is more powerful for extent of Lands, and multitude of People; and is invested with a more eminent quality, which is the Empire. But, because they hold it only by Election, they have that pre-eminence but for a time; so that the Family of Austria from a Sovereign, may become a Subject; which can never happen to the Sovereigns by succession, but by the ruin of the State.  
Now, because these two Families draw to their motion, the most part of our Christian Western world, and that since one hundreth and fifty years the house of Austria hath taken a stupendious growth: It will be to good purpose to examine in this Chapter her Birth, Progress, and Greatness. For we shall not need to speak of the greatness of France, which is a grounded Monarchy of twelve hundred years standing. But it is but of late that the house of Austria dareth claim equality with the house of France.  

Paragraphe I.  
Yet so much we will say of the house of France.  
1. It is certain that this Kingdom was erected out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, in the year 419. Pharamont was elected King by the Frankes, beyond the Rhine, in the Country of Sicambria, which is Guelderland, Uretcht, Friesland, and other Countries thereabout. But neither he, nor his Son Clodion the Chevelu, passed ever into France for any thing that we read; but sent forth their Armies to conquer it. Merovee the third King, was the first that came to Paris and took it, and settled himself with the Frankes in gaul's. From him was the first race of French Kings denominated, and called the race of the Merovingians.  
2. Clovis the fifth King, was converted to the Christian faith in the year of Christ 500 and brought the French State to great splendour, by the expulsion of the relics of the Romans, near Soissons, Laon, and Reins, by the Conquest of Gaul, Aquitanique, and by the defeat of Alaric, and the Kingdom of the Goths. The Sons of that Clovis about the year 527. conquered the state of the Burgundians, or Bourgognons: So that race of the Merovingians, about the year of 530. was possessed of all the Gauls, yet divided into Tetrarchies by the children of Clovis, and again by their descent.  
That race with the Gauls held great part of Germany, and having done great services to the Church, and protected desolate Popes, got from them the name of most Christians, & eldest Sons of the Church. When that title was given them, we cannot precisely tell; yet Saint Gregory who lived in the year 600. saith, that the King of France is as eminent above other Kings, as every King is above his Subjects.  
That first race kept long the fierceness of German-barbarousnesse, and about the year 650. after the death of Dagobert, they degenerated to idleness, and so continued for a hundred years, which gave occasion to the Mayres of the Palace, to encroach upon the Sovereign Authority. Among whom Charles Martel was most eminent, who having defeated the Sarrasins near Tours, and killed three hundred threescore and six thousand men, and relieved the Pope against the Lombard's; raised much the honour of France and his own, but to the destruction of the first Royal line, which ended in the degradation of the unfortunate Chilperic, in the year 752. having subsisted 333 years.  
5. The second race much more illustrious than the first, began in the person of Pippin, Son to that Charles Martel. A valorous & fortunate Prince, devoutly addicted to the Roman See. He received Pope Stephen the first into France, and put down Adolphus King of the Lombard's, who persecuted the Pope. But his Son Charlemain raised the State of France more than any. For he conquered great part of Italy upon the Lombard's, and quite destroyed them An. 774. overcame the Saxons, and other Nations of Germany, conquered part of Spain upon the Saracens, and made himself master of most part of the old Empire of the West, and so was crowned Emperor of the West, An. 800. And three years after, limits were set in Italy, between the two Empires of East and West; Nicephorus being then Emperor of the East. And the bounds were the Rivers of Lyris now Garigliano, and Aufidus now Lofanto, both in the Kingdom of Naples. So that excepting the farthest part of Italy, part of Spain, and the Brittanique Lands, divided between many petty Kings, he was possessed of the whole Empire of the West.  
6. These first Kings were very liberal to the See of Rome. Pepin, and Charlemain, gave them the Exarchat of Ravenna, and other Lands which the Pope's pretended to have been taken away from them by the Lombard's. Lewis the Meek, who succeeded his Father Charlemain, confirmed and amplified that gift An. 817. the Charter whereof Baromus hath published, taken from the Vatican, as he affirmeth. Lewis the Meek dying An. 840. left the State of France in a great height, possessed of the Gauls, Germany, Italy, and part of Spain. All other Princes compared to the French Kings, were mean fellows.  
7. Lewis the Meek left three Sons, Lothaire and Lewis by his first wife, and Charles the Bald from Judith his second wife. These three Brothers for three years contended about their partage, the law of the eldest being not then in use among them, till that cruel battle of Fontenay near Auxerre was fought, where above a hundred thousand men were slain, and especially much Nobility and Gentry whereby the State was weakened, and the Brothers were forced to come to an arbitrement; That Lothary the eldest, should have all the Lands beyond the Rivers of Scaldis and Mosa, as far as the Rhine, namely the Provinces of the Low Countries, Liege, Treves, Juliers, Luxemburg, Lorraine, Alsatia, and others. Also that which lieth beyond Saone and Rhosne, namely, Franch County, Savoy, Dauphin, Provence. Also as much of Italy as was left to the Emperor of the West, by the partage with the Emperor of the East. This was the share of Lothary the eldest, who took with it the Title of Emperor. Lewis, the second Brother, had all that their Father held in Germany, and there was called Germanicus. To the third, Charles the Bald, France was left, much about as it is at this day, enclosed within the narrow Seas of England, Scaldis, Mosa, Saone, Rhosne, the coasts of Languedoc, and the Pyrenees. That partage of the three Sons of Lewis the Meek, An. 843. is the most remarkable date of the French History. Then was that great Monarchy cut in shreds, and the greatness of France humbled, the name of which remained only to the proportion of a third part. And from that time, the French State thus clipped hath remained with little alteration. Only we have lost Flanders and Artois, and many times the borders of the Kingdom have been changed towards Mosa and Scaldis. But in recompense we have got Dauphin and Provence, beyond the ancient bounds.  
8. As by this partage the State of France remained very much diminished, so the French Kings lost the name of Emperors, which nevertheless Charles the Bald took since. But his Descent being fallen to idleness as the first Race; the State of France thus shortened, lingered among many civil broils and misfortunes, till the year 987. when that race ended, having subsisted about 235 years.  
9 Hugh Capet, head of the third Race, was descended as it is thought, from an ancient House of Saxony planted in France, by Wittikind the Saxon of the race of that other Wittikind, a Saxon Prince who so long made head against Charlemain. This third race began to reign in the year 987. It is that which this day subsisteth, and besides her ancient Nobility before she was Sovereign, hath now held the sovereignty above 660 years, and besides innumerable victories obtained over her neighbours, made great Wars against the Infidels in the East, and in Spain, and against Heretics in all the Provinces of Europe, keeping still a great respect to the See of Rome. All these ways she hath maintained herself in the prerogative of precedence and glory above all others. And although he that bears now the quality of Emperor, go before the French Kings, because he retains the name and place of those great Monarches of all the West, yet he hath neither right nor pretence over the Kings of France; yea, Mr. de Breves, in the Appendix of the Negotiation of the East, added to the History of his voyage, saith, That in Henry the 4ths' time, he had the precedence before the Ambassadors of the Emperor Rudolphus, at the Porta of the great Turk, who judged that the precedences of Christian Princes, in relation to the Church of Rome, and the Popes, were of no consideration at his Porta, where the strongest and the most courageous finds most favour. Also whereas the King of France was then in War with the House of Austria, he would not give his enemy any advantage over him. Neither do the Turks acknowledge the Emperor but as King of Vienna, but have a great esteem for the French Kings. But without insisting upon the History of their third Race now reigning, or making Panegyrics of their glory; we will say that next to the precedence which they give to the Emperor lawfully elected, they have it over all the Sovereigns of Christendom.   

Paragraphe II.  
Now to understand the Origine, progresses, and rising of the house of Austria, we must observe,  
1. That the Empire which was left (as we said) unto Lothary, the eldest Son of Lewis the Meek, subsisted (though weakly) in the house of Charlemain, till about the year 912. when Lewis the last of that race being dead, there was a great contention between the Germane and Italian Princes, whereby the Empire was in confusion above fifty years, until Otho the Great, Duke of Saxony invested himself of that quality, made himself Master of Germany and Italy, the only remaining pieces of the Empire, in the year 963. and ruined all his competitors. This Otho I. was Father of Otho II. and he of Otho III. after whose death the Germans assisted by Pope Gregory the V who himself was a Germane, took upon themselves the right of creating Emperors. And from that time all that have peaceably reigned have been Germane, because the Pope's having made themselves Masters of a great part of Italy, have done their utmost to expel the Emperors out of it, and confine them to Germany.  
2. As in France, by the idleness of the last Kings of the 2d Race, the Governors of Provinces made themselves Masters of them, and became Dukes and Earls. Likewise the idleness of the successors of Charlemain in the Empire, and the confusions risen in Germany, after the extinction of that Race, gave a beginning to so many Fees both Secular and Ecclesiastical which are now in Germany, the Governors having made themselves Lords, and laid the foundation of the great Houses now in being. Which nevertheless have gone through many changes, some families being extinct, and some Fees sold, transported, or confiscated. Among these families, one of the chief, and indeed the most remarkable at this time, is that of Austria.  
3. The French Kings of the first Race, possessing a Kingdom of vast extent, which they divided into Ostrick and Westrick. Ostrick which by corruption and French termination, was called Austrasie, was the Eastern part, and comprehended the Countries towards the River Msa, and beyond the Rhine, and as far as Hungary, Westrick, which by corruption was called Neustria, comprehended the Western part, from Mosa towards Britain. These names were long preserved, even to the age of Charlemain, and being lost by the new partage between the Children of Lewis the meek; yet the name of Neustria stuck long to the Western part, which is now called Normandy (for Britain was a State by itself.) The name of Ostrick being lost by the same partage, remained nevertheless to the most Eastern part, and the next to Hungary, and is that which we call Austria, a word corrupted from Ostrick and Ostenrick, and is that Province seated upon Danubius, where the Capital City of Vienna stands.  
4. In that Country Otho the III. about the year 1000 established Leopold a Marquis, that is a keeper of those Marches against the ordinary excursions of the Hungarians. That Leopold is the head of the first House of Marquess' since Dukes of Austria which continued, till a certain Friderick who went to the War of Naples against Charles brother of St. Lewis, and being taken with Conradin a competitor of that Kingdom, was beheaded with him.  
By his death without Children, Austria returned to the Empire. But Wenceslaus King of Bohemia, sought to join it to his State, and sent thither his Son Ottocarus, who having conspired against the Empire with the Hungarians, was degraded and put to death by the Emperor Rudolphus, of whom we are now to speak.  
5. By the death of the Emperor Friderick the Second, the great enemy of Popes, which was about the year 1231. the factions were so great about a new election, that there was an Anarchy of twenty years and above, under these titular Emperors, William Earl of Holland, Richard of England, and Alphonsus of Spain. In the end, after many assemblies and contentions, the Electors gave their Votes to Rudolphus Earl of Habsburg, who was acknowledged by the whole Empire. That Election was in the year 1255. five years after the death of St. Lewis. Philip le Hardy then reigning in France.  
6. Between Basel and Soleurre, Cantons of Switzerland, there is Triestein Castle, the Lords whereof had the Title of Counts, and by the women inherited the County of Habsburg, and took the Title of the same. Of that House was this Rodolphus (before whom there is no certainty of the History of their House) who by his virtue was elected Emperor, An. 1275. and died in the 1291. The Duchy of Austria being then vacant, and Ottocarus the Bohemian having invaded it, and made a league with the Hungarians against the Empire, Rodolphus divested him of it, and slew him; and An. 1282. invested his Son Albert in the same. In that Albert we must take the birth of the house of Austria. And although that Albert was also Emperor from the year 1298. till 1308; yet his descent returned not to that quality, but 130. years after, and went for Princes of the Empire, as other Imperial Families; Only in the time of Pope John 22. there was a great contention for the Empire, between Friderick of Austria, and Lewis of Bavieres. The whole Pedigree of that house, is to be seen in the Tables of Bertius, from the Creation of Rudolphus of Habsburg, An. 1275. to the year 1438. when the Empire entered so into that house, that it did not come out since.   

Paragraphe III.  
So much is known then, that the house of Austria by the death of Albert the first, lost the Empire and fell back into the State of a private principality; and that less considerable than the houses of Saxony, Bavieres, and Luxemburg, which furnished many Emperors, and so it continued till the Emperor Albert the II.  
Sigismond the Emperor, of the house of Luxemburg, was Son to Charles the iv Emperor and Grandchild to John King of Bohemia. And that Charles the iv was he that made the golden Bull, and established a certain form of Imperial elections. This Charles was Grandchild to the Emperor, Henry the VII. head of the house of Luxemburg. Sigismond had no male issue, and gave his only Daughter Elizabeth to Albert of Austria; who after the death of his Father in law, was elected Emperor, An. 1438. and this house hath ever since kept the Empire.  
From that year these Emperors reigned. Albert the II. who reigned two years, Friderick the III. his Cousin who reigned 53 years. Maximilian Son of Friderick, who reigned 26 years. Charles the V who reigned 36 years. Ferdinand I. brother to Charles, who reigned 9 years. Maximilian Son of Ferdinand, who reigned 12 years. Rodolphus II. Son of Maximilian, who reigned 36 years. Mathias brother to Adolphus, who reigned 7 years, Ferdinand II. Cousin to the two precedent Emperors, who reigned 19 years. To him succeeded his Son Ferdinand III. who is the tenth of that house from the year 1438. To which if you add the Three of ancient date, there have been thirteen Emperors of the house and name of Austria.  
That house may be considered, either in her Patrimonial estate which she held in Germany before her greatness; Or in her great rising, which sprung out of three heads.  
1. The marriage of Maximilian with Mary, the Inheritrix of the seventeen Provinces of Netherlands. Franche County, and the goods, not masculine, of the house of Burgundy.  
2. The marriage of Philip, Son of Maximilian, and Mary of Burgundy, with Jane the Inheritrix of Spain, and by consequent of Sicily, Naples, and the West Indies, and soon after of Portugal, and the East Indies.  
3. The marriage of Ferdinand, brother to Charles the V with Anne the Inheritrix of the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungaria. The great estate of that house being accrued to them by these ways: We will speak here of the Patrimonial Dominions of the house of Austria, reserving the rest for the following Paragraphes.  
The Patrimony of the house of Austria wholly seated in Germany, and upon the River Danubius; hath on the South the Mountains of Tirolis, and towards the Rhine Alsatia, Bounded Eastward with Hungary and Poland, Southward by the Venetians, Westward by the Swissers, and Northward by many Princes of Germany. That Estate is composed with many pieces, which were united in one body as it followeth.  
1. The Emperor Rodolphus of Habsburg, having overcome and slain Ottocarus, Son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, gave to his Son Albert the Duchy of Austria, where Vienna stands, the Duchy of Stiria, where the Town of Gratz stands, the Lordships of Carniola and Windismark; otherwise the March of Slavonia, and Portenan in the Country of Friuli, wherein the house of Austria is a neighbour to the Venetians. This is the first Patrimony of the house of Austria, of which Albert was invested by his Father at Ausburg, by the consent of the General States of Germany.  
2. In the year 1283. Henry marquis of Burgan in Suevia, between ulm and Ausburg, being dead without Children, the same Emperor Rudolphus gave that Marquisat to his Son.  
3. Albert the III. Duke of Austria, Grandchild to the first Albert, was made Heir with his brothers of the Duchy of Carinthia, and the Duchy of Tirol within the Alps near Italy; by Margaret, Daughter to Duke Henry as her nearest kinsman, by their Grandmother Elizabeth, Sister to the said Henry, and Wife to Albert the first; and because the house of Bavieres laid a claim to the County of Tirol, the said house renounced it by agreement, Ann. 1362.  
4. The County of Ferretta, is a little Country above the French County, near Basel, and on this side of the Rhine. It came to the house Austria, by Jane Wife to Albert the II. Duke of Austria, Daughter and Heir of Ulrich, Earl of Ferretta, about the year 1358.  
5. Leopold Duke of Austria, bought of Agon Count of Friburg, in Brifgau, towards Alsatia, the Signory of that Town, and some other towards the Grisons.  
6. Friderick the third, in the year 1458. after the death of Ulrich Count of Cibey, dead without Children, seized upon that County, and united it with the Duchy of Stiria.  
7. Maximilian the First, in the year 1501. seized upon the County of Goricia, vacant by the death of Count Leonard. So all these pieces make up the ancient Patrimony of Austria, which hath many times been distracted and divided, for to make Portions to the youngest. And yet at this time the County of Burgau is in the hands of a Branch of that house which bears the Title of Marquesses of Burgau. And the County of Tirol belongs to the children of the late Archduke, Leopold, brother to the Emperor Eerdinand the II.   

Paragraphe IU.  
To make up the greatness of Austria, six of the gr●●test houses of Europe have met in one; Aus●●ia, Burgundy, Castilia, Arragon, Hungary and Portugal.  
1. Of that of Austria, we have spoken before.  
2. The house of Burgundy was founded in the person of Philip, fourth Son to King John of France, who dying in the year 1363. left to his Son Philip the Duchy of Burgundy. He and his three Successors, John, Philip the Good, and Charles slain before Nancy, gathered many Provinces by Marriages, Purchases, Gifts, and Usurpations; whence that great Estate of the house of Burgundy was framed, four main pieces whereof depended from the Sovereignty of France: Namely, the Duchy of Burgundy, the County of Flanders, with the Towns of Lilo, Douai, and Orches, the County of Artois, and that of Charalois. The rest he held from the Empire, Franch County, the four Dutchies of Netherlands, Luxemburg, Limburg, Brabant, and Gueldres. The Counties of Hainault, Namur, Holland, Zealand, Zutfen, Mechlen, West-Fresland, Over-Issel, and Groninghen. And in the year 1528. the Bp. of Utrecht yielded to the Emperor, Charles the V the Lordship of Utrecht, and his claim in Over-Issel, because he was not strong enough to maintain it against the Duke of Gelder's his Enemy.  
After the death of Charles, killed before Nancy, Mary his only Daughter, pretended to his whole succession; But Lewis the XI. King of France, seized upon the Duchy of Burgundy, pretending that it was a masculine fee, given by King John to his Son Philip le Hardy, for him and his Heirs Male; for the reasons which we shall represent in the following Chapter. All the rest by right remained with Mary of Burgundy, even the County of Charolois almost enclosed within the Duchy of Burgundy, although the French would have it to be a fee of the same Nature, as the Duchy. Yet because it was found that it had been purchased from the house of Armagnae, by the Dukes of Burgundy, it was left to Mary; And since that time, during the civil confusions, and the Wars with Spain, the French having seized upon it; yet they restored it to the house of Austria, by the Treaty of Veruins, Ann. 1598. saving only the resort and dependence upon the Parliament of Dijon  
3. The house of Castilia is an offspring of that of Navarra: For Sanchez King of Navarra, divided all that he held in Spain to his three children. Garcias the eldest had Navarra; Sanchez King of Navarra, divided all that he held in Spain to his three Children, Garcias the eldest had Navarra; Ferdinand, Castilia; and Ramires, Arragon. Of these Kings, the lives and actions must be seen in the History of Spain. In the year 1472. that House fell to Isabel, sister to Henry the iv called the Impotent. Isabel was married to Ferdinand King of Arragon. From that marriage issued Joan the second Daughter and Heir, which brought all these Estates to the House of Austria by her marriage with Archiduke Philip. These Estates contained the two Castilia's, Gallicia, Leon, Asturia, Biscay, Mursia, Cordova, Andalusia, Estremadura. Since that time an. 1492. under the conduct of Christophorus Columbus, the Castilians discovered many Lands of West-Indies, Hispaniola, Cuba, Jaimaica, and others. Americus Vespucius, discovered the Western continent, an. 1500. Fernando Cortes, subdued the great State of Mexico, an. 1518. and Francis Pizarro the Perou, an. 1525. All that, is comprehendedunder the name of Castilia, and is fallen to the House of Austria by that marriage.  
4. As for Arragon, many Kings reigned in it of the line of the foresaid Ramires; and that family passed through many changes. In the end that estate fell into the hands of Ferdinand the Catholic, at the same time that the Kingdom of Castilia fell to Isabel whom he married. So his estate came to consist of four parts. 1. Of the patrimonial inheritance of his House, Arragon, Catalonia, Roussillon, Valentia, Marjorca, Minorea, Ivica, Fromentera, Sardinia, and Sicily. 2. The Kingdom of Naples, which he took from the French, An. 1503. as we shall say afterwards. 3. The Kingdom of Granada, which he and his wife Isabel got from the Saracens, Anno 1494. 4. The Kingdom of Navarra, out of which he dispossessed John of Albret, An. 1512. All these Estates fell to his Daughter, married with Philip Archduke of Austria. 5. Hungary had her Kings, well known in the Histories, especially since the year 1000 the time of King St. Steven. That family fell to that of the Kings of Naples, descended from the Royal House of France, by the marriage of the inheritrice of Hungary with Charles the Lame, Son to Charles, brother to St. Lewis. Finally, after many great changes, that Crown fell to Lewis the last King of Hungary and Bohemia, slain by the Turks in the battle of Mohats, An. 1526. He dying without Children, the Crown fell to his sister Anne, whom Charles the V her brother in law presently caused to be married to his brother Ferdinand. So the two Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary entered into the House of Austria. To Bohemia were annexed also Moravia, Silesia, and the two Lusatia's. Under the name of Hungary, was contained also Transylvania, with part of Bulgaris, Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia. But the greatest part of these is now in the hand of the Turks.  
6. The State of Portugal began about the year 1090. in the person of Henry, a French Prince of the House of Burgundy, and continued among many changes to the death of King Sebastian, An. 1579. after whom in the reign of his great Uncle Cardinal Henry, there was a dispute between many contenders for the succession. But Philip the II. King of Spain, got it by Arms, An. 1580. claiming right to it by his Mother Isabel, Daughter to King Emanuel, for the reasons which we shall speak of in the next Chapter. From that Kingdom depends that of Algarba, the Towns of Ceuta, Tanger, and Marsagan in Africa. An infinite number of Lands and Caps, from the Cap of good Hope, the Kingdoms of Congo, Angola, Bresia; And beyond the Cap of good Hope, an infinite number of Towns, Isles, Countries, and Forts, as far as China, and the extremity of the East. All that is comprehended under the name of East-Indies, discovered at several times since. Vasco Gamma, a Gentleman of Portugal past the Cap of good Hope, An. 1497. under Emanuel King of Portugal. It is then by the right of Isabel, wife to the Emperor Charles the V that the great Estate of Portugal was devolved to the House of Austria. To which Estate they have since added several pieces by conquest or otherwise.  
Charles the V got the Lordship of Utrecht from the Bishop, as we said before. The sovereignty of Flanders and Artois, was appropriated to them (as they pretend) by the Treaties of Madrid, An. 1525. Of Cambray, An. 1529. Of Crespy, An. 1544. The same Charles got the Town of Mastricht, An. 1530. although the Bishop of Liege pretended the half of it to belong to his jurisdiction. In the year 1530. he invested Ludovic Sforza with the Duchy of Milan, upon condition that if he died childless, Philip the II. King of Spain should succeed him, which happened five years after, An. 1536. he got the Duchy of Gelder's, the County of Zutfen, and the Lordship of Groaning, by a Treaty with Charles, the Duke of Gelder's, who died an. 1538. An. 1543. he made himself Master of the Town of Cambra, as Protector of that Imperial Town, which being since got by the French, and lost again, was confirmed to the Spaniards by the Treaty of Veruins.  
An. 1538. the same Charles having got the Town of Sienna, gave it to Cosmo Duke of Florence, to be an homage for it to the King of Spain, paying six thousand Ducats of entry at every change of Duke.  
Philip the II. King of Spain, took from the Turks, an. 1554. the Fort of Fignon, Veles, and Gomera, in Africa. An. 1571. he wrested the Marquisat of Final from the House of Carreto. Philip the III. took from the Moors in Africa, the Towns of Arrach and Mamora. These are the principal pieces of that great State of vast extent. And I think one may truly say, that the House of Austria holds more ground than ever any Prince did: But these pieces being scattered, that State is not strong, glorious, and form dabble according to its extent.  
That House of Austria was divided into two branches, the Spanish and the Germane, between Charles and Ferdinand brothers, and successively Emperors, Sons to Archiduke Philip, and Jane of Spain. Charles was the head of the Spanish branch, which holds in Europa, and out of it all that we said before. Ferdinand, brother of Charles, was the head of the Germane branch which now holds the Empire. To him Charles yielded the ancient patrimonial Estate of the House of Austria, within the limits of Germany. The same Ferdinand by his marriage with Anne, inheritrix of Hungary and Bohemia, united those two Crowns to his States. These two Branches at this present hold these Estates, saving that which Gustavus the King of Sweden hath taken from them, and what the French have got in these Wars from the Spaniard. In the Low Countries, Hesdin, Arras Bapaume, Landrecy, Thionville, Quesnoy, etc. Towards Spain the County of Roussillon and Perpignan. Then the Catalonians have revolted and given themselves to the French. Portugal also hath shaken the yoke, and chosen a King of the House of Braganza, Of elder date, part of the Low-Countries have cantonned themselves, and are now Sovereigns. The Turk hath got the most part of Hungary; and Transylvania acknowledgeth no more the House Austria.    

CHAP. III. A discussing of the Rights now in dispute between the Houses of France and Austria.  
THe contentions between these two Families these 150 years, and of the Nations subject unto them, especially the French and the Spaniards, comes not only out of natural antipathy and contrary inclinations, but chief out of the pretences that the one house hath upon the other. For, as between private persons, so among Princes, the neighbourhood of grounds breeds quarrels. And these several pretences yet undecided, aught to be examined, to know the ground of all the late and present Wars. Of these, large volumes of Histories, and Polemical writings might be, and have been, written; but here I undertake no more, but faithfully to set down the grounds of pretences on both sides. Which though I will do briefly, and summarily; yet will I omit nothing essential and fit to decide the differences. To do this orderly, we will divide this Chapter into two points. The first, of the pretences of the house of Austria upon France. The second, of the pretences of France upon the house of Austria.  

First Point, The pretences of the house of Austria, upon that of France.  
ALthough the house of Austria, both the Spanish and the Germane, have pretences different from that of the Empire, which they hold only by Election, and upon Condition of yielding, and depositing it again in the hands of the Electours, after the death of each Emperor; Yet their interesses are now so united, that the Imperial rights, and those of the house of Austria can hardly be separated. Wherefore we will examine them together.  
All the pretences of that Family, are either upon the Sovereignty of the Kingdom of France, or part thereof; especially upon the propriety of Province, the Duchy of Burgundy, the Towns of Mets, Thoul, and Verdun, the Towns upon the River of Somme, and the Duchy of Britain. These must be examined.  

Paragraphe I. The pretended Rights of the Empire, upon the Sovereignty of France.  
Concerning that Right, now stolen, and indeed ridiculous; four things are to be considered.  
1. The Roman Empire which began in Julius Caesar, or Augustus, comprehended indeed all the West, and herein the Gauls. That Empire was made up of the ruin of many Nations, by right or wrong. Howsoever long prescription, and the consent of Nations, with the extinction of the royal Families, made up a reasonable right, which continued in the Roman Emperors, till the year of Christ, 400; when by the inundation of many Northern Nations; Goths, Vandals, Franks, and others; the whole Empire was dismembered, and the several Conquerors of each part made themselves Sovereign. So did the Franks in Gauls. A beginning not to be excused of violence and usurpation. But the ruin of the Romans, prescription, and the consent of the conquered people did since authorise their dominion, and towards the end of the first age of these invasions, they were all justified, and the Conquerors remained just possessors, especially when the Roman Empire ended in Augustulus, An. 475.  
And when Charlemain restored the Western Empire, an. 800. that promotion did not alter the former Title he had to the Kingdom of France. It was but a Title of honour, which he, and after him his Son Lewis the Meek possessed, with that of King of France. Afterwards, by the partage made An. 843. between the Sons of Lewis the Meek; each of the three brothers had his portion independent from the others, and Lothary the Eldest, who had the Title of Emperor, pretended no right over Charles the Bald, who had France for his Portion, much as it is now. Since which time, all that would ascribe any Superiority to the Emperors, over the Princes of Christendom, that are acknowledged Sovereign, have with good reason been hissed out as ridiculous. Only the precedence was left to the Emperor as the eldest among the brethren. But the subjection which he yields to the Pope, and the small right which he retains over the Lands and Princes of the Empire, weaken his authority very much, and make it unworthy of that precedence over all the Princes of Christendom. Wherefore he doth not stir those ancient pretences over all the Kingdoms of the West.  
2. Some German Historians, as Trithemius, Lazius, Munster, Fiesdorpius make the house of Habsburg (which is that of Austria) to descend from the first race of the French Kings; a fable invented since 120. years, and newly taken up again by the flatterers of that house. Especially by Fiesdorpius, a name either true or forged by the Spaniards.  
To understand this, we must know that the Kingdom of France was often divided into Tetrarchies under the first race, Kings of Paris, of Orleans, of Soissons, and Mets. In the last of these, Brunehault reigned with great power, that abominable woman so much renowned in our Histories, which confounded and destroyed that house by her ordinary murders. That State of Mets being fallen into the hands of two brothers, Thierry and Theodebert, who contended for it; Therry joining with his Grandmother Brunehault, overcame Theodebert in battle, and put him cruelly to death. And by Brunehaults order, the two Sons of Theodebert were slain in her presence. This Tragedy was acted An. 617. But these Historians, to flatter the house of Austria, say, that of these two Sons of Theodebert, the one, called Sigebert, escaped the hands of his great Grandmother, and fled into Germany to Godfrey and Genebald, Dukes of Franconie, his Uncles by the Mother, by whose intercession he obtained of Lothary King of France, his Cousin, some lands in Switzerland, upon condition that he should renounce all his rights to the Crown of France. That he or his Son, or one of his more remote descent built the Castle of Habsburg, and founded that family. And upon that account, the house of Austria descends from that of France.  
That relation is a blind tale; for all ancient Historians affirm, that both the Sons of Theodebert (and he had no more) were slain by Brunehault. And the first that mentions that escape of Sigebert, is Trithemius, who lived about six score years ago. And as it is false, it is ridiculous in the ordinary vicissitude of the affairs of the world, and the continual changes of Possessions, to set up Titles after an interruption of a thousand years. For, upon that account, there is no Prince in Europe, but may be degraded, and no mean man, but may be entitled to some principality. It is with great reason, that the Title of prescription is every where preferred before all Titles. And though the tale were a true story, that Rodolphus of Habsburg, the head of the house of Austria, was descended from the Family of Habsburg by the women; his masculine extraction was from the house of Tiestein. So this pretence is so ridiculous, that it is not worth speaking.  
3. The branch of the house of Valois hath continued from male to male from Philip de Valois, who came to the Crown, An. 1328, to the death of Henry the Third, An. 1589. males failing in that branch, the Crown by the fundamental laws of the Land was to pass to the next branch of the Males, which was that of Bourbon, and so did in the end. A Title so known to all the French, that even in the heat of the War of the League, against the house of Bourbon, as professing a contrary Religion; yet they crowned the Cardinal of Bourbon, and called him Charles the Tenth.  
In these confusions, Philip the Second King of Spain, seeing the party of the League inclined to the Election of a King, claimed the Kingdom for his Daughter Clara Eugenia Isabel, as Daughter of Elizabeth of France, his third wife, sister and Heir of the three last Kings, Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. and of Francis Duke of Alenson, the eldest of three Sisters; of which the Second was Claude, married to Charles Duke of Lorraine; and the third was Queen Margaret, wife to Henry the Fourth, then only titular King of Navarra. He alleged then that representation being a good Title by the Laws of France, his Daughter entered into all the rights of her Mother Elizabeth, which should have inherited of her brothers; and that her right extended even to the Crown, as the Patrimony of her Family; That the pretended Salic Law of the French was imaginary; yea, and against Nature, against Humanity, and the right of Political successions, which require that all Inheritances may go to the next Heirs. And though that Law had force among the French, that his Daughter being not a subject, nor borne in France, could not be tied by these municipal Laws. That between Sovereigns, the Law of Nature, not the particular Laws of Nations should be the rule. That all Laws of Nature reject this principle, that the successions should be for males only, as though females were unreasonable creatures; or the excrements and sweep of mankind, and no part of human society.  
When the States of the League were assembled in Paris, An. 1593. some unadvised and rash heads moved the Election of a King, and the excluding of the house of Bourbon, which stirred the Parliament to make that famous Arrest for the maintaining of the Salic Law, to which the wisest of the League yielded. Philip the II. of Spain, in that Assembly of the States, set up his Daughter's Title, and presented her to be Queen. But presently perceiving the weakness of that Title, and the aversion of the French, from the Government of a woman; he offered to marry her either with a Prince of the house of Austria, or with one of the House of Lorraine; Whose imaginary rights were at the same time pleaded. And to strengthen all these rights, he said, that the Election by the States would supply all defects in the Right of succession.  
It appeared, that Philip acknowledged the weakness of his Daughters right, since he presented her to be elected. The Salic Law is fundamental in France, wisely instituted, and observed twelve hundred years together.  
As for Philip's allegation, that Princes are not to be tied by municipal Laws, but by the Laws of Nature, it is utterly false. For in the discussion of the rights of all Sovereigns, the municipal Laws are always examined; and none can have right to an Estate from which he is excluded by the Law of the Land. The decision of all suits for Estate, is taken out of the customs of the Land where the Estate lieth; but where those customs written or unwritten are wanting, the case is to be decided by reason only. The French think they have both Law and Reason on their side: Howsoever, that Isabel in whose favour that Right was set up, died childless, an. 1633. Whose right, if she had any, should be devolved since to the Children of her second sister Katherine, wife to Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy, from whom all the House of Savoy that now is, is descended.  
4. Besides these imaginary Rights to the whole Kingdom, the Empire hath a weak pretended right to some parts of it. Whereupon we must observe, That by the partage between the Sons of Lewis the Meek, 843. all the Countries that lie between the Rivers of Rhosne and Saone, and the Alps, viz. Provence, Dauphin, Savoy, and Franch County, remained Imperial Lands. And the French Kings in the second Race, yea, and very far in the third Race, pretended nothing to them till Dauphin came to them in the time of Philip de Valois, and Provence, in the time of Lewis the XI. And that part of the Empire being held by Lothary the eldest Son of Lewis the Meek, and after him by his Son Lewis the Young, who died without Heirs Male, a State was erected in favour of his Daughter Hermengard; between these two Rivers and the Alps, which was called the Kingdom of Arles; or the second Kingdom of Burgundy, which continued under its proper Kings (whose pedigree was fully described by the Historian Du Chesne) unto the death of Rodolphus the last King, who dying without issue, an. 1036. left his Estate to the Emperor Conrade the TWO, surnamed the Salic, who had married his sister Grisel, or (as some say) was his Nephew by her.  
By that gift, besides the ancient pretence of the Empire upon that Kingdom, at least for the sovereignty, the Emperors became Masters of the same both by sovereignty and propriety, and annexed it to the Empire; At which time the Arch bishop of Treves took the name of Cnancellor, per regnum Arelatense. But the Authority of the Emperor's coming to a great decay out of Germany, especially during the Wars between the Emperor Henry the iv and the Popes; four Principalities were framed in that Kingdom of Arles, of the Counts of Provence, the Dolphins of Viennois, the Counts of Moriurre, called since Dukes of Savoy, and the Counts of Rurgundy, which without question depended from the Empire as long as there was any vigour in it: But time hath worn out that title, and prescription is past uponit; not to be broken, and the old title revived, unless the Emperor will together question most part of the Principalities of Italy, and the East and North Gauls.  
Of these four Principalities, that of Savoy subsisteth to this day. Franch County is fallen to the House of Flanders, and so to the house of Austria. Daulphiné was given to Philip de Valois by Imbert Dolphin, about the year 1343. And Provence to Lewis the XI. an. 1482. by Charles Count of Maine, Heir to René King of Naples, and Duke of Anjou. All these changes and gifts as for the propriety only, the Sovereignty being still pretended by the Emperors, which they may well be accounted to have lost, by weakness, desertion, and by prescription, as many other Principalities at this side of the Rhine. Besides, the French Histories relate that in the year 1377. the Emperor Charles the IV, being come into France to visit King Charles the V, gave to his Godson Charles, who since was Charles the VI, the right which the Emperor's pretended in Daulphiné, which was no great gift. And Theodorick à Niem, an Historian of that age, saith, That the same Emperor being come to Avignon to visit the Pope, gave to Lewis Duke of Anjou, brother to Charles the V of France, the whole Kingdom of Arles, which had been under the jurisdiction of the Empire, in recompense of the magnificent entertainment which the said Lewis gave him at Villeneufue near Avignon. So all these Rights of the Empire, are lost either by prescription or donation. These are all the rights that can be imagined to be pretended by the Emperors and the House of Austria, upon the Sovereignty of France.   

Paragraphe II. Of the Rights pretended upon Provence.  
Let us now examine some pretences of the House of Austria, upon some Dutchies and other Dominions in France, beginning at Provence.  
1. I shown before, how Provence before the partage between the Sons of Lewis the Meek, (a fundamental and famous Date in our History) was part of the Kingdom of France; And when it was divided into Tetrarchies, it was a member of the Kingdom of Mets, Austrasia, or Burgundy. But when (before that famous division) all France was reunited in the second Race under these two great Princes, Pepin and Charlemain, Provence was a part of it.  
2. By the partage between the Sons of Lewis the Meek, Provence, with all that was beyond the Rivers of Rhosne and Saone, was cut off from the portion, given to Charles the Bald, and was since called the Kingdom of Arles. All these pieces given to Lothary the eldest brother, were called the Empire, and Imperial grounds; and to this day the Lands beyond the Rhone towards Italy, are called Terres d' Empire, Lands of the Empire, and the Lands at this side Terres de France, French Lands. Since that partage, the Emperors have always pretended a Sovereignty to those Countries, a right strengthened by the donation made of the propriety of it, to the Emperor Conrade the Salic, by his Uncle or Brother in law Rodolphus the last King of Burgundy.  
3. Lewis the II. Emperor, Son to that Lothary, left but one Daughter called Hermengarda, which being incapable of the Title of Emperor, had instead of it that Country between the Rivers of Saone and the Rhone, the Alps, and the Sea; which Dominon was erected to the Title of a Kingdom by Charles the Bald, King of France, and Emperor in favour of that Hermengarda, whom Bozon one of the Court of Charles, and his wife's kinsman took away. These two Bozon and Hermengarda, gave a beginning to that second Kingdom of Burgundy, or the Kingdom of Arles, about the year 875. which continued under these Kings among many alterations to that last Rodolphus, an. 1036. All that time Provence was part of that Kingdom of Arles.  
4. Which Kingdom being extinct in that Rodolphus, and united to the Empire by Conrade the Salic, shortly after by the weakness of the Emperors, and the disorders risen in the Empire; four Principalities were framed out of it, as we said before. That of Provence, under the title of a County, was the most considerable, as being full of good Towns, and of great commerce, by reason of the Sea. It was possessed by the family of Berengers, with the title of Counts, whose History was written by Nostradamus'.  
5. That House of Berengers kept the County of Provence till the time of St Lewis, when Raymond Berenger the last Count left four Daughters, the eldest whereof Margaret was married to Saint Lewis. The three others were also married to Sovereign Princes, Eleonor to Henry the III. King of England; Fancy to Richard his brother, who was since created King of the Romans; and the fourth Daughter Beatrix, to Charles Count of Anjou, brother to St Lewis. Raymond dying an. 1231. left that Beatrix Heir of all his Estate, leaving Legacies only to the three others, to each three thousand marks. Another Raymond Count of Thoulouse, would have taken away that Beatrix to marry her: But St Lewis prevented him, sending an Army into Provence, and taking her gave her to his brother Charles to wife, to whom he gave the County of Anjou. And thirty years after, the same Charles was invested by the Pope, with the Kingdom of the two Sicily's, as we shall see hereafter.  
The County of Anjou returned to the Crown of France, being given as a portion to Margaret, Grandchild to that Charles, who was married to Charles Count of Valois, Father to King Philip de Valois. And many years after that first Branch of the Kings of Naples, and Counts of Anjou, pretended no right to that County, it was given to Lewis, brother to King Charles the V who founded the second House of Anjou, now erected to a Dukedom. But the two other pieces of that Estate, which Charles brother to St. Lewis enjoyed with his wife Beatrix, which was Provence, and the Kingdom of the two Sicily's remained always united: and the Kings of Naples and Sicily, whether of the first House of Anjou, or of the second, or of the family of Arragon, have always claimed a right to the County of Provence; so that Naples and Provence go under one right, as we shall more fully expound when we shall speak of the claim of France upon Naples.  
6. Jane, Queen of Naples, of the first house of Anjou, went out of Italy, An. 1379. with Pope Clement VII. and retired to Avignon when that great Schism began, which contitinued forty years. Since which time, although there have been many disputes for the succession of Naples, between the Families of Charles de Duras, the Dukes of Anjou, and the house of Arragon, and that portion of Italy passed through many changes; yet Province into which that Jane retired, was soon after put in the hands of Lewis, first Duke of Anjou, brother to Charles the V and both he and his descent enjoyed it peaceably, without any disturbance from the houses of Hungary and Arragon, who were fight for the Kingdom of Naples, although both pretended that Province belonged to them by the same right. But the conveniency of the place, as lying under the wings of France, which might assist it at any time, kept the possession thereof to the house of Anjou. And finally, from the house of Anjou it past to that of France, being left to Lewis the XI. by Charles Count du Main, Heir and Nephew to Rene, titular King of Naples, and real Possessor of Province. Lewis the XI. though he knew the right of the French in Naples, which his Son Charles the VIII. and his other successors have pursued; yet he neglected it, and contented himself to take Provence. By this discourse, it appears that who so hath the lawful Possession of the Kingdom of Naples (which we shall examine afterwards) hath also a lawful right to Province.  
7. Besides that claim of the Possessors of Naples upon Province, disputable between that house first of Anjou, and that of Arragon & Austria; there is a more particular claim of the Dukes of Lorraine against the French Kings, Heirs to that Charles du Main. The Lorriners pretend that René having a Daughter named Yoland, from which the house of Lorraine is descended, could not lawfully disinherit his Grandchild, to give his Estate to Charles du Maine his Nephew. To which the French answer two things.  
1. That Province was a purchase of René, who could dispose of it.  
2. And that Province useth the Civil or Roman Law, by which testaments are free. But the discussion of that point, is for another place.  
Howsoever this remains, That the Dukes of Anjou, and the French Kings after them, have peaceably enjoyed the County of Province above 270. years, and the invaders of Naples never had any thing in it: Which indeed, hinders not, but that they may have a right to it. But the reason whereby we shall exclude them hereafter from any right to the Kingdom of Naples, will serve also to invalid their claim upon Province.   

Paragraphe. III. Of the Duchy of Burgundy.  
1. The Burgundians came out of Germany, or some other Nation of the North, in that great inundation of Northern people over the Roman Empire, about the year 400. founded a State under the name of the first Kingdom of Burgundy, about the Rivers of Saone and Rhone, and near the Alps: And that State having begun An. 407. was ruined by the children of the great Clovis about the year 527. and lasted about six score years.  
2. Since which time, under the first race of the French Kings, Burgundy was part of the Kingdom of Orleans; some part of it also belonging to the Kingdom of Mets, and Austrasia. And in the end, the Kingdom of Mets and that of Burgundy, became all one, till by the partage between the children of Lewis the Meek, that part of Burgundy, which is beyond the River of Saone, remained with the Empire, and in the portion of Lothary the eldest Son. The other on this side of the River of Saone, was allotted to France, and was a considerable member of the same. Before the institution of Fees, made in the beginning of the third race; Burgundy was governed by Dukes, and three Brothers of Hugh Capet, the first of that race, held it. But the last of them, Robert, was divested of them by his Nephew, King Robert, Son to Hugh Capet, and it was reunited to the Crown. All that was before the two Families of Burgundy, of which we are to speak to discuss the right which the Spaniards pretend upon that piece of the French State.  
3. So then from the beginning of the first Race, two Royal Families have possessed the Duchy of Burgundy. The first began by Robert, younger brother to King Henry the First, and Son to King Robert. To him his brother Henry gave that Duchy, in the year 1032. That Family continued from Male to Male, without any interruption of Female succession, until the death of the last Duke Philip, dead without issue, An. 1362. Then King John at that time reigning in France, seizd-upon that piece as an apanage; so the French call the Portions of the Sons of France, which are to return to the Crown, when Heirs Male fail. That apanage then being returned to the Crown, King John bestowed it in the same nature upon his fourth Son Philip. This was the head of the second house of Burgundy, which had four Dukes only successively. This Philip called le Hardy, invested by his Father, than john, the third Philip le Bon, the last Charles killed before Nancy, An. 1477. who left his Daughter Mary his universal Heir. She was married to Maximilian of Austria, since Emperor, and so carried all her estate into the house of Austria. From that marriage came Philip Archduke, married with Jane, Inheritrix of all Spain; and by her had two Sons, Charles the V and Ferdinand, Emperors, founders of the two Families of Austria that now reign.  
4. After the death of Charles, killed before Nancy, Lewis the XI, seized upon the Duchy of Burgundy as an apanage of France, returning to the Crown. Although Mary and her Husband Maximilian alleged, that the Duchy had been given to Philip the Hardy, by his Father, King John, as an absolute gift, without any restriction of masculine descent. That question, though agitated on both sides, will always remain undecided. The French Kings maintaining themselves in that possession. Charle; the V Grandchild to that Mary, grounding himself upon that right, which we will declare afterwards; required by the Treaty of Madrid, that the Duchy of Burgundy should be restored to him as his by his Grandmothers right, and taken from her by Lewis the XI. But after the return of Francis the I, that Treaty was declared void, as being contrary to all right of Nations, which disannul Treaties made in Prison, and extorted by violence, & contrary to the Municilpal Laws of the State of France, which constitute the Kings to be always Minors: that is, uncapable of absolute disposition, as for the alienation of their Dominions. So the Article of that Treatise, concerning the restitution of Burgundy remained null, though signed by the King. Besides, the State's General of the Kingdom protested to the King, that it was never in his power to alienate any Province of his State without their consent. Which last opposition was of such force, that since neither in the Treaty of Cambray, nor in that of Crespy in Valois (in which several pieces were yielded unto the house of Austria) any mention was made of Burgundy. Yet the Kings of Spain take still the Title of Dukes of Burgundy. So much for the Fact. We will now examine the right.  
5. It must be acknowledged that the severity of Apanages for the Males only, to the exclusion of Females, is not in use among the French but since the time of Philip de Valois, who began to reign An. 1328; for remounting higher to Hugh Capet, we find not that exclusion of Females from successions, saving the ordinary preference of the Males before them. And the Females were admitted Heirs, in all kinds of estates, whether given by the King, or by others. Yea, many times the houses of the Sons of France have ended in Females, that have transported their Estates to other Families; as it appears in that of Dreux of Vermandeis, of Courtenay, and of others. But since the time of Philip de Valois, no Son of France had any apanage but upon that condition. Which is evident, in that all the apanages are returned to the Crown by the extinction of Males, to the exclusion of Females, as those of Anjou, Berry, Alencon, and others. Yea, although that first house of Burgundy be much ancienter, and hath begun almost with the third race; yet as it was the first, and most important apanage, we have in the History thereof an example of the exclusion of Females and settling the inheritance in the Males. Hugh the iv of that name, Duke of Burgundy had three Sons, Eudes his eldest, John Lord of Charrolois, and Robert the II. Duke of Burgundy. Eudes was married in his Father's life time, died before him, and left three Daughters, Joland, Margaret, and Alice or Alix; John the second Son was married, and died likewise before his Father, leaving a Daughter Beatrix of Burgundy, Lady of Bourbon. This was the Lady who being married with Robert, Son to Saint Lewis, gave a beginning to the house of Bourbon. When Eudes the iv died, it seemed that the Daughters of the First or Second of his Sons should have inherited by the right of representation of their Father; but they were excluded from it by their Uncle Robert, who enjoyed it, and his Heirs Male peaceably, though these four Daughters had been married in great and potent houses.  
6. Philip the last Duke of that Race being dead, King John took the Duchy in his Possession; yet did not reunite it to the Crown, but presently gave it to his fourth Son, Philip le Hardy, whom he especially loved, because he had saved his life in the battle of Poitiers, though he was then very young. He gave it him by a long Charter, which indeed contains not in express terms the exception of Female Heirs; but conferrs it upon him with the same rights by which himself came by it, and by which he possesseth it. Terms which have caused difficulty, because John could be said to succeed to it by two rights; the one as King, the other as the next Heir-male of the last Duke. If he succeeded to it as King, the Duchy being an apanage, returning to the Crown in defect of Heir-Male, then without doubt it was settled upon his Son Philip as a masculine apanage, both because his Father gave it him with the same right by which himself had got it. And because the severe Law of Apanages was already in use from Philip de Valois, Father to John, and never was interrupted since.  
7. But King John (say the Spaniards) inherited of the last Duke as the next of blood, and his Heir, ab intestato, because it appeareth in the Genealogy of that first Race of Burgundy, that Robert the TWO, he that had excluded his four Nieces, was Father to Hugh the V who died without issue, and of Eudes the iv both successively Dukes of Burgundy. This last was Grandfather to Philip the last Duke, who ended the masuline line. But that Robert the II. had three Daughters besides Margaret wife to King Lewis Hutin, whence came the house of Navarra, Jane wife to King Philip de Valois, and mother to King John, and Mary wife to Edward Count of Bar. They say then, that after the death of Philip the last Duke. King John took that Duchy by the right of his mother Jane, which right he transported to his Son Philip le Hardy, without any mention of masculine apanage, whereby they will have it evident, that females may inherit it.  
8. Against that pretended right which was very much disputed in the Treaty of Madrid, the French have strong exceptions.  
The first is, That from the time of Philip de Valois, within which that gift was made, no Son of France had any great Apanage but with that restriction, against which whatsoever King John may have said or done (and he was a very imprudent and rash man) he could do no valuable deed to the detriment of the State, or against the fundamental Laws.  
The second Reason is, That since we see by the example of Hugh the iv that females are excluded from that succession, we must acknowledge that John did not succeed by right of his mother, but as King, receiving an apanage devolved unto him.  
The third Reason is, That King John was not the next Heir in blood, for by proximity of blood, the children of the eldest Daughter, which was Margaret wife to King Lewis Hutin should have succeeded, not King John, who was Son to the second. Now that succession fell when that wicked man Charles King of Navarra, Grandchild to that Margaret was in his strength, who if there had been any life in that title, would not have failed to have set it up; for Burgundy was better than all his Navarra, and the rest of his estate. And yet that stirring man did not stir that point, or it was so slightly, that he left off presently; but hotly pursued a recompense for the Counties of Champagne and Brie, which by right belonged to his mother Jane, Daughter to Lewis Hutin, Son to Jane Countess of Champagne and Brie, Queen of Navarra, wife to Philip le Bel. By all this it is evident, that the Duchy of Burgundy was settled upon Philip le Hardy his Son, in the nature of a true masculine apanage.   

Paragraphe IU. Of the Towns of Metz, Thoul, and Verdun.  
By the partage so famous among the Sons of Lewis the Meek, an. 843. it is certain that all that was beyond the River Mosa towards Germany, was cut off from that which retained the name of Kingdom of France; and that these three Towns remained Imperial. But Mosa being the bound of these two States, the Empire and the Kingdom; yet by an infinity of Wars, Usurpations, and Treaties, that bound and other limits between the two States were often changed. In the time of the weakness and declination of the House of Charlemain, most part of the Cities and Lordships of the Empire, did canton themselves, and made themselves particular Dominions under the protection of the Empire, and some remained free, others were subjected to especial Lords, some Lay, some Ecclesiastical. All these make up now the great body of the Empire: Of that nature were these three Towns, Metz, Thoul, and Verdun, upon which the French Kings pretended no right till the time of Henry the II.  
An. 1550. the Protestants of Germany called Henry the II. to their help, against the Emperor Charles the V Henry sent them great Auxiliary forces by Ann de Montmorency Constable of France, who in his way seized upon Thoul and Verdun, & put Garrisons into them to assure the passage of the French Forces into Germany. The Government of Thoul was given to Monsieur d'Esclavoles, Lieutenant of the company of the Duke of Guise. And Charles Cardinal of Lorraine, was restored to his Lordship, annexed to the Bishopric of Verdun, the King retaining the sovereignty for himself, which he thought he could lawfully do, because the Lord of it was his subject, and had an estate in France; and because the Emperor was his declared enemy, whose Estate he might invade. In the same expedition the Constable seized on the City of Metz, which the Emperor Charles the V besieged towards the end of the year 1551. but in vain, since which time the French have enjoyed these three Cities; yet finding their right some what weak, they used it at the first with great moderation, calling themselves only Guardians and Protectors of the same, till Lewis the XIII. caused them to be altogether incorporated with France, and in them hath established a sovereign Court of Parliament.  
Indeed these three Towns have of long continuance been Imperial, and being got by subtlety, upon pretence of the surety of the passage, the right of the French Kings in them should be much more disputable then in many other places, as themselves have confessed in many of their instructions for the general Treaties. Yet it may be said for the French, that Henry the II. took them as his enemy's estate, when he made War against the Emperor. That the Emperor never made since any stipulation for the restitution of them in any Treaty. That the rights of the Empire on this side of Rhine, are so vanished and lost, that the Countries seem now to be primum occupanti. That Holland, also Lorraine, Switzerland, Savoy, Franch County, Daulphiné, Provence, were Imperial Lands; and yet all these are slipped from the Empire by a prescription grounded upon the weakness and neglect of the old Sovereign. Also that the French Kings at the first, declared themselves only Protectors and Guardians of these Towns: which if afterwards they have incorporated to their State, it was by the consent of the people, seeing themselves deserted and neglected by the Empire. Finally, in that point the French think they may use the right of Represals. And that if the Emperor and the House of Austria should do them right about all their pretences, there would be some reason why the Emperor should be contented about these Towns.   

Paragraphe V Of the Towns on the River of Somme, and other contained in the Treaty of Arras.  
The four Dukes of the last House of Burgundy, were Philip le Hardy, John, Philip le Bon, and Charles.  
John, after the death of his Father Philip le Hardy, an. 1404. caused great troubles in the State of France, and caused his Cousin German, Lewis Duke of Orleans to be slain, an. 1407. whence sprung those great Divisions and Wars between those two Houses, of which the Histories are full. That John was slain at Montereau foult-Ronne, by the command of Charles the Dolphin, an. 1419. His Son Philip de Bon, pursued with great power and eagerness the vengeance of that death, made league with the English, and distressed very much the Kingdom of France. In the end seeing himself ill used by the English, he grew weary of their alliance, and ashamed of the harm which he had done to his Country. Being then contented to agree with the King, he met with him at Arras, An. 1435. This was called the Treaty of Arras, a fundamental piece of the History of that age, and the following. By that Treaty, after that King Charles the VII. in as little dishonourable terms as might be, had asked pardon for the kill of Duke John, when he was Dolphin, they agreed about many other Articles, and the King gave many pieces belonging to the Crown. The chief were these.  
1. He transported to the Duke, and to his Heirs lawfully begotten, the Towns and jurisdictions of Peronne, Roye, Mondidier, to hold them by homage from the Crown, and in Title of Peerdom, to depend of the Court of Parliament of Paris.  
2. The County of Artois was restored unto him on the same Title, with all the impositions amounting to fourteen thousand Livers. per an. But of the rights of France upon the County of Artois, we shall speak hereafter.  
3. He transported to the said Duke the Towns of Saint Quintin, Corbi, Amiens, Abbeville, dourlan's, Saint Riquier, Crevecoeur, and all the other Towns, Castles, and Lordships seated upon the River of Somme on both sides, together with the County of Ponthien, and other Lands adjacent to the County of Flanders, and Lands of the Empire. All these Towns, Castles, and Lordships, redeemable with the sum of 400000 Crowns. Upon that Treaty all these Towns were delivered to the Duke of Burgundy, and all the time of Charles the VII. nothing was altered in this agreement.  
Lewis the XI. came to the Crown. An. 1461. who being unthankful and malicious, although he had great obligations to the house of Burgundy; yet as soon as he came to the Crown, he conceived a great aversion against Charles Count of Charolois, Son and Heir to Philip le Bon, and would recover all those pawned Lordships, arguing the Treaty of Arras, of nullity and invalidity, maintaining that his Father could not alienate so many pieces belonging to the State, against the fundamental Laws. To disengage these Lands, he laid great impositions upon the people, till he had raised the four hundred thousand Crowns, which he caused to be brought to Abbeville, and delivered unto the Duke, who soon after delivered all those places unto him. Charles Count of Coarolois took that so heavily, that he almost died for sorrow, and conceived a mortal hatred against the Lord of Crovi, whom he accused to have advised his Father to it. And it was one of the causes of the War of the public good; which having been carried with various success, till the Treaty of Conflans, near Paris, 1465, the fourth Article whereof was, that the King should give again to the Count of Charolois, all the Towns seated upon the River of Somme, lately redeemed with 400000. Crowns, to enjoy them all his life time, and besides that, should give him the County of Guines for himself and his Heirs for ever. This Charles, who was since Duke of Burgundy, enjoyed these Lands, though not without Wars and Divisions, against Lewis the XI. Finally, Charles being dead before Nancy, An. 1477. Lewis the XI. did suddenly invade the Duchy of Burgundy as a masculine apanage, returning to the Crown, and all the Towns upon the River of Somme, which the French have kept ever since. Neither can the house of Austria pretend any just right to them as Heir of the house of Burgundy; both because Charles the VII. had not power to alienate these parts of his State (as his Son Lewis the XI alleged) and because all these Towns had been alienated upon condition of redemption with a certain sum, which was paid by Lewis the XI. unto the Duke Philip. And if they were restored to the Count of Charolois, it was for his life only; Wherefore Lewis did not seize upon them, but after the death of Charles. At which time also he took Arras, of which we will speak hereafter.   

Paragraphe VI Of the Duchy of Britain.  
The right of the house of Austria to the Duchy of Britain, hath more ground than any of the former, and gave matter to many disputes, especially in the time of the League; the King of Spain, Philip the II. representing the rights of his Daughter Isabel, both to the Kingdom, and especially to that Duchy. And when the Duke of Mercoeur, who had cantonned himself in it (finding himself too weak to maintain his own pretence to it, which was upon another ground) threatened to give entrance to the Spaniards into the Duchy, La Guesle the King's Attorney General, made a long speech to defend the King's right, of which the summary is this.  
1. That Francis the II. the last Duke of Britain dying An. 1488. left two daughters, Anna and Isabel. The second died young. The eldest, Anne, had the whole succession, and was married first to Charles the VIII. of France, by whom though she had many children, none outlived the Father: Who being dead, she was married with his successor Lewis the XII. by whom she had two Daughters, Claude married to Francis the I. who by her had Henry the TWO, who was Father to three Kings, Francis the II. Charles the IX, Henry the III. and to Francis Duke of Alencon, all which left no issue. He was Father also of Elizabeth the Third, Wife of Philip the II. King of Spain, who by her had the Infanta Isabel, Wife to Archiduke Albert, and Princess of the Low-Countries, died An. 1633, and Catherine, Duchess of Savoy.  
2. By the death of Henry the III, all the masculine Race of Valois was extinct, and the next Heir of that house was Infanta Isabel, daughter to Elizabeth the eldest Sister of Henry the III. So if there was any Estate in that house inheritable by women, it belonged to Isabel without question. Philip the TWO, dealing for his daughter after he was once satisfied, that his pretence to the Crown of France in her behalf was ridiculous, asked that at least the Duchy of Britain should be restored to her, as the Estate which her great Grandmother Anne of Britain had brought to Lewis the XII, an Estate which often had passed to Females, saying (as it was true) that she was the next in blood.  
To these allegations these answers are given.  
1. That the Duchy of Britain had been inserapably united with the Crown, by the coming of Henry the II. to the Crown; for it is a fundamental rule among the French, that a King coming to the Crown, uniteth unto the same all his Estate, both Paternal and Maternal.  
2. Besides that tacit and municipal right, to which all contrary pretence must yield; there was an express union made An. 1532. at the request of the State's General of Britain, by Francis the I. upon condition, that the Dolphin should take the Title of Dolphin of Viennois, Duke of Britain; which was then practised in the person of the Dolphin Francis, but was since neglected. That au thenticall union of Britain with the Crown, cannot be disputed, since the consent of the whole Province did intervene, and that in all public businesses, all private rights, must bow and yield to the public good, Salus populi suprema lexesto.  
3. Besides, ever since John of Montford by the battle of Auray An. 1364. remained Master of the Duchy, and excluded Jane his Cosen-German, Wife to Charles de Blois, objecting that she was a woman, and that women were not capable Heirs of Estates of that nature; Since that time, I say it may be affirmed that Females were excluded from the succession of Britain. And that if Anne, Wife to the two Kings, Charles the VII. and Lewis the XII. was admitted to it, it was by toleration; For by right, after the death of Francis the last Duke, the Duchy was devolved to the Crown. And truly, Francis the last Duke, by his great revolts, had given sufficient cause to the Kings of France, his Sovereigns to deprive him of his Estate.  
4. The French also may here set up the right of Aubain, which excludeth strangers, & admitted none but regnicolae, inhabitants of the Kingdom to successions. Which must especially be observed in great Estates and most of all in those that own a liege homage. For whereas the Duke of Britain did owe personal service to the King; how can a woman born in Spain, tied with blood and interest unto a house always jealous, and often declared Enemy of the State of France, perform that part of her duty to the Crown? a duty absolutely necessary for the preservation of the body of the State unto which the establishing of all Fees must have regard.  
6. The French may deal besides with the house of Austria by right of represals. For since that house withholds so many Dutchies, and Counties from the Crown of France, without any recompense or satisfaction; they think not themselves bound to give ear to their pretences upon so little ground.    

Second Point Of the third Chapter. The pretences of the house of France, upon that of Austria.  
A Book was published An. 1634. entitled Inquisition of the rights of the King and Crown of France, upon the Kingdoms, Dutchies, Countries, Towns, and Countries usurped by foreign Princes upon the most Christian Kings, composed by Cassan the King's Advocate in the Fresidial of Beziers; wherein all that we have to say of this matter, is fully and curiously set down: Which though we will but summarily relate; yet we hope to add something to it both for order and matter. We will stand here only upon those rights which are disputed against the house of Austria, and the Empire; both because it is our present business, and because all other claims are stolen and of small importance.  
All the pretences of the French upon the possessions of the house of Austria, are either ancient and almost worn out, as the pretences upon Castilia, Portugal, Arragon, Catalonia; or later and important, upon Dominions to which they maintain their rights, and claim them from time to time, to hinder a prescription; joining to their claim active prosecution by arms.  
Though I might omit those first pretences as too stolen, yet I will here set them down among the rest, for the information of curious Readers.  
All the pretences either new or old of the French upon the Spaniard, are either within or without Spain.  
In that Peninsula, called Spain, enclosed within the great Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pyrenees, since the invasion of the Saracens, an. 713. there hath been a great number of petty States under the Title of Kingdoms, Dutchies, Counties, etc. into which that great Province was divided, either by the Moors when they conquered the Land, or by the Christians when they reconquered it; and it is but a hundred and fifty years, since there was yet five remarkable distinct sovereignties in Spain, Castilia, Arragon, Navarra, Portugal, and Granada, four of which Castilia, Arragon, Navarra, and Granada were united by Ferdinand the Catholic. Portugal came to the House of Austria, a. 1580. under Philip the II. (for here I speak not yet of the revolt of the Portugais and Catalans, which hath cut off two considerable limbs of that great body, of which we will say more before we have done) This is not a fit place to examine how these several States were founded, and how united as they are now. We consider only that there be six pieces within Spain, upon which the French have pretences, Castilia, Portugal, Navarra, Arragon, Catalonia, and the County of Roussillon. And out of Spain they claim a right to the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, the Commonwealth of Genoa, and the Counties of Flanders and Artois.  

Paragraphe I. Of the Kingdom of Castilia.  
The Saracens Moors, having invaded Spain an. 713, were manfully opposed by two Catholic Princes, Inigo Imenes, surnamed Arista, Count of Bigorre, who conquered upon them part of the Pyrenees, and founded the little Kingdom of Suprarba, called afterward Navarra. The other Prince was Don Pelagus, Uncle or Cousin to King Rodriguez, dispossessed before by the Saracens. This Prince founded a Kingdom towards Asturia, called Gallicia or Leon, or the Kingdom of Oviedo. He, and his Descendants, and people, stretching themselves towards the plains, recovered the Country as fare as the Straight of Gibraltar, and built many Castles upon their Frontier to keep out the Saracens. Whence the Country was called Castilia, which remained under the subjection of the Kings of Oviedo, till the year 896. when the Castilians incensed against their King Frocla, who had usurped the State of his Nephews, cantonned themselves, and chose two sovereign Judges. The two first were Nugno Rasuro, and Flavio Galvo. But about 40 years after, an. 939. Sanchez King of Oviedo and Leon, made himself Master of Castilia, and reunited it unto the Kingdom of Oviedo where it remained, till Dom Sanchez, surnamed the Great, King of Navarra, who had Castilia by his Wife, made that famous partage between his three Sons, giving Navarra to Garcias his eldest Son; to Ferdinando, Castilia and Leon; and to Ramires his bastard, Arragon. That partage was about the year 1036. which is the date of the birth and distinction of those three States in Spain. From that Ferdinand King of Castilia, descended long after Alphonsus the IX. the Father of three Children, one Son called Henry, and two Daughters, Blanch and Berengera. Henry reigned after his Father, and died without issue. Blanch was married to Lewis the VIII. King of France, and was mother of St Lewis. Berengera was married to Alphonsus the IX. King of Leon.  
After the death of Henry, Blanch as the eldest, was the undoubted Heir of Castilia, and Beringera had no right to it being the youngest. Yet because Beringera was within the Country, and Blanch lived in France very fare, she seized upon the state, and with it invested her Son Ferdinand, although many of the Grandees opposed it, standing for the right of Blanch, which caused great troubles till St. Lewis to whom Castilia belonged after his Mother, thus composed the difference.  
Ferdinand, the usurper of Castilia over Blanch and St Lewis, was Father of Alphonsus the X. King of Castilia and Leon, against whom St Lewis having an Action for Castilia one of the two Kingdoms, married his Daughter Blanch, Granddaughter of Blanch the inheritrice of Castilia, an. 1267. with Ferdinand, surnamed, De la Cerda, eldest Son to that Alphonsus the X. By the contract of marriage, it was agreed that S. Lewis yielded all his rights over Castilia, to his Daughter Blanch, and her Children after her; upon which conditions performed, France lost her claim upon that Kingdom; but that Ferdinand de la Cerda died before his Father Alphonsus, and his younger Brother Sanchez usurped the Crown, depriving his Nephews, Sons to Ferdinand and Blanch, of their right. From that usurper Sanchez, all the Kings of Spain to this day are descended. From the dispossessed Children of Ferdinand and Blanch of France, is descended the House of the Dukes of Medina Coeli, who retaining still the memory of that degradation, and of their birthright over the family of Sanchez, make their protestations at every change of State, that if the family now reigning should fail, they might enter upon their right.  
Out of that discourse, four things do result for our purpose.  
1. That after the death of Henry King of Castilia, all the right of the Kingdom belonged to his sister Blanch, and after her, to her Son St Lewis; and that Berengera the younger sister of Blanch, and her Son Ferdinand, were usurpers.  
2. That St Lewis indeed yielded his rights by the contract of marriage between Ferdinand de la Cerda, and his Daughter Blanch. One might say, that it was more than he could do; for the rights of the Crown cannot be alienated. But they had not then such absolute maxims, and were not so jealous as now of preserving the union of States, which in those days were often divided, exchanged, bought and sold. And St Lewis sufficiently perceived the impossibility of governing the French and the Castilians together.  
3. But that Session was conditional, requiring that the Children of Ferdinand and Blanch, should inherit the Crown. That condition having been violated by the usurpation of Sanchez, younger Brother to Ferdinand, and the poor Princes, Children to Ferdinand and Blanch, being disinherited and proscribed, that session of St Lewis becomes void by right, and the claim of the French might be good, if it was not somewhat too old.  
4. At least all that Right of St Lewis remains with the descendants of Ferdinand and Blanch, the Dukes of Medina Coeli, for they have double right, the one from Ferdinand, as elder Brother to Sanchez; the other from Blanch, to whom her Father St Lewis had conferred his right. And if the House of Medina Coeli would prosecute it, they should be well grounded, and the French Kings might defend their claim very justly, as their successors and fetching their right from them.   

Paragraphe II. Of the Kingdom of Portugal.  
Portugal, a part of the old Lusitania, is one of the Provinces of Spain, near the great Ocean under Gallicia, between the Rivers of Duerno Minio, and Tajo: To which also belongs a little State, called the Kingdom of Algarba, which is the point of the Cap St Vincent, next to the Isle of Cadiz, and the Straight of Gibraltar. That Country was wasted and conquered by the Saracens, as the rest of Spain, by that great inundation of those barbarous Nations, an. 713.  
All the Christian Princes, and all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdoms of the West, (even after the time of Charlemain, and Lewis the Meek, who were there in person) very willingly went to make War in Spain, against these Saracen Moores. Especially an. 1090. a little before the enterprise of the holy War, Philip the I. reigning in France, & Alphonsus the VIII. in Spain; many Princes and Noblemen confederated themselves, and went into Spain against them. The most eminent was Henry, of the first Royal House of Burgundy; for although there hath been much dispute about his Origine, now all Historians acknowledge that he was Grandchild to Robert, Brother to King Henry the I, who had Burgundy given him for his apanage. This Henry of Burgundy, having done great exploits against the Moors, married Teresa, natural Daughter of Alphonsus, who gave her for her portion the Towns of Coimbra, Braga, and others in Portugal, with forces to conquer the rest, of which he quitted himself so well, that he expelled the Infidels from great part of Portugal, of which he was called Comes or Count, and no other title did he bear all his life time. He died an. 1112. and left a Son named Alphonsus, who took Lisbon, and much Country besides, and was called the first King of Portugal, an. 1139. From that Alphonsus is descended the whole House of Portugal, till the death of Henry the Cardinal King, a 1580. at which time Portugal was united with Spain.  
The great difficulty about the succession of that Kingdom, whether it belong to the house of Spain, or to that of Braganza, or to that of Parma, is nothing to this purpose. It hath wearied the reasoning of the greatest Politicians for threescore years, and finally hath ended in a general revolt of Portugal, and a bloody War. Certainly, although such as are most jealous of the growth of Spain, will vote for the House of Braganza, and that of Parma, the question is not without difficulty.  
But France hath a further pretence to the Kingdom of Portugal, for which we must remount higher. Alphonsus the TWO, King of Portugal, had two Sons, Sanchez the TWO, surnamed Capel, and Alphonsus. Sanchez reigned after his Father, but with small vigour, and was despised by his subjects. Alphonsus' living then in the Court of St Lewis, where he received much honour, as being his kinsman by Blanch of Castilia the King's Mother. By his means he married Mahaut of Dampmartin, Widow to a Prince of the blood, an. 1235. and by her had Children. The people of Portugal weary of their King Sanchez, desired Alphonsus to come home, and take the tuition of the State, which he did, leaving his wife Mahaut in France. And his Brother being degraded and himself made King, he forgot his wife and children in France, and married Beatrix, natural Daughter of Alphonsus the IX King of Castilia, who gave her for her portion the Kingdom of Algarba. Because his first wife was living, that 2d marriage was accounted unlawful; yea, Alphonsus was excommunicated for it by Pope Alexander the iv and hated by all the Princes; and Mahaut coming into Spain, made a heavy complaint against him. Who was so hardened in that sin, that he protested that if a hundred wives would have him, he would marry them all. Yet being a great Warrior, and a wise and prosperous King, he maintained himself by the love of his subjects, insomuch that Mahaut being dead, the Bishops of Portugal obtained his absolution of Urban the iv and the confirmation of that second marriage of which he had Children. One of them, and his successor, was Denis, Alphonsus being dead, an. 1279. From that Denis are descended all the Kings of Portugal to this day.  
Some of the French Historians affirm, that Mahaut had two Sons by Alphonsus in France, the one that died young, the other Robert, from whom the whole House of the Counts of Bullen is descended, which fell to Magdalen de la Cour, wife to Laurens of Medicis, by whom came Katherine de Medicis, mother of the three late French King, Francis the II. Charles the IX, and Henry the III, after whose death (by the substitution set down before in the contract between her and Henry the TWO,) the inheritance of Katherine came to her Daughter Queen Margaret, first Wife to Henry the iv That Queen made the Dolphin of France her Heir, who since was Lewis the XIII.  
When the dispute for the succession of Portugal was open, after the death of Henry the Cardinal King an. 1530, Katherine Queen of France, among other pretenders to that Crown, set forth her claim by Belloy, Advocate General in the Parliament of Toulouse, who pleaded that from the marriage of Alphonsus and Mahaut, a Son was born called Robert, and had succeeded in all his rights, that Beatrix was the Concubine, not the wife of Alphonsus; and that the Pope could not legitimate Denis born of adultery, to the prejudice of Robert the true Heir of Alphonsus. Also that all the Kings that had reigned since Denis for three hundred years, made no prescription, because there can be no prescription for the right of Kingdoms. That right being propounded to the Estates of Portugal, was found too old and stolen, and injurious to all their Kings; neither did they make any account of it. Besides, the Spanish Historians affirm, that Alphonsus had no issue by Mahaut, and that among the protestations which Mahaut made in Portugal against Alphonsus, there is not one word of the injury which he did to her children, which she would not have forgot if she had had any: Yet that right may be defended by the testimony of the French Historians, and by this true allegation, that neither a bastard nor his Descent can prescribe against the lawful Heirs.   

Paragraphe III. Of the Kingdom of Navarra.  
An. 713. when the Saracens in vaded Spain, Inigo, Ximenes, Arista, Count of Bigorre gave a beginning to the little Kingdom of Suprarba within the Pyrenees, which a while after having spread into the vales, took the name of Navarra or Navierras, which in old Spanish signifieth plain grounds. It is certain, that two generous Princes, and great Catholics resisted the Saracens in the very beginning of their invasion. Pelagius towards the Astures which are Leon and Gallicia, and this Ximenes Arista towards the Pyrenees; though the date of the Conquests of this Ximenes be not so certain; some Historians make him latter. Upon which one may read the History of Navarra written by Favin.  
2. These Kings of Navarra in their beginnings, made many Conquests over the Saracens; and that Family continued to Sanchez the great, who about the year 1035. shared all his Estates among his three Sons, of whom the eldest Garcias, had Navarra; to whom many Kings succeeded, till that State fell to the house of France, by the marriage of Philip le Bel, with Jane Inheritrix of Navarra, Countess of Campagn and Brie, to whom Lewis Hutin, King of France and Navarra, succeeded in her Estates. But he having no child but a daughter, called Jane, which could not be Queen of France, he left her Navarra; and so that State was soon separated from that of France. That Jane married Philip of the Royal branch of Eureux.  
3. By that marriage, the house of Navarra became a Royal French house; but the nature of that Crown being to fall to women, as the other States of Spain, it passed not long after into the Family of Arragon by marriage, and so again into the Family of Castilia, and again into the Family of Foix, after this manner.  
4. Charles the III. King of Navarre, Grandchild to that Jane, daughter to Lewis Hutin had one only daughter called Blanch, married to John, Prince and afterwards King of Arragon. From that marriage came Charles Prince of Viana, who got a great, but an ill renown in the Histories of Spain, for making War to his Father, and maintaining himself against him in his State after his mother's death. That Prince of great learning and courage, died a bachelor. The two other children of John of Arragon, and Blanch of Navarra were two daughters. The eldest Blanch of Arragon, who having been married with Henry the iv King of Castilia, surnamed the Impotent, was separated from him, by reason of his impotency, and died without issue. The other was Eleanor, wife to Gaston the iv Count of Foix, who after the death of her Father, Mother, Brother, and Sister, succeeded to the Kingdom of Navarra, and united it to the house of Foix. She enjoyed it but two months and a half, and died, An. 1469. Her eldest Son, Gaston Prince of Viana, being already dead, and having left, by his wife Magdalen, daughter to Charles the VII. of France, two children, Francis Phoebus, who succeeded his Grandfather in the Kingdom of Navarra, but enjoyed it but four years, and died unmarried, and Catherine de Foix, who succeeded him, and married John d' Albret, Son to allen d' Abret, a man of great note in Gascony, but not of a sovereign house; yet descended from that Amani d' Albret, who in the time of Charles the V of France, married Magaret of Bourbon, Sister to Jane, Queen of France, and raised his house to a great splendour by that royal alliance, & advanced much the party of the French against the English.  
5. John of Albret, and Catherine de Foix, had a Son called Henry, who was King of Navarra, and married Margaret, Sister to Francis the first of France, by whom he had Jane, Inheritrix of Navarra; Jane being married to Antony of Bourbon, was by him Motherof Henry the iv of France, Father to Lewis the XIII, and Grandfather to Lewis the XIV. Thus that house of Navarra was united with two great houses in France; yet not Royal, that of Foix and that of Albret, and after to the Royal house of Bourbon, and became so powerful in France, that her possessions from these three houses much exceeded the Kingdom of Navarra. Hence it is manifest, how the last Kings of Navarra by the interest of their Alliance, and Estate were obliged to follow the party of France. Now it happened, An. 1510. after that Lewis the XII. had humbled the Venetians by the victory of Aignadel, and brought terror among all the Princes of Italy, that Pope Julius the II. fell out with Lewis, and prosecuted the quarrel with such animosity, (Lewis on the other side, being as fierce as he) that the contention grew almost into a Schism: Julius excommunicated all that took part with Lewis, and put an interdict (as they call it) upon their Estates. Lewis maintained himself against his fulminations, both by an Assembly of his Prelates at Tours, who cleared the obligations of the King's conscience, as his History speaks, and especially by arms, whereby he repressed all the invaders of his State, and put them to the defence of their own. But John d' Albret, and Catherine of Navarra, were expelled from their State by Ferdinand the Catholic, who making a show to pass into Guienne to join with the English, and seize upon the Kingdom of France, by virtue of the Papal interdict, suddenly turned upon Navarra, and took it, An. 1512. both because John d' Albret was united with the French King, who was a rebel against the Church, and an Enemy to the English, with whom Ferdinand had alliance; also because the Spaniards hold that there was a tacit agreement between the Kings of Spain, not to suffer that any of the Spanish Crowns should fall into foreign hands, or into houses not sovereign, as those of Foix and Albret. As the reason and pretence of that invasion, was leight and groundless, the French stand to their right to this day, against that manifest, invasion, and hinder the prescription by arms Treaties and Protestations.   

Paragraphe IU. Of the Kingdom of Arragon.  
Cassan in his Book of the rights of the Crown of France, with more zeal than judgement will ground those rights upon conquests 800. years old, and ancient expeditions of the French Kings into Spain, where they took some Towns of Navarra, Arragon and Catalonia, not considering the many changes of successions in so many years. The Conquests of Catalonia and Arragon by Charlemain, give to the French no more right there in these times, than those of Caesar in France to the now Emperors.  
The rights of the French over Arragon, Catalonia, & Roussillon, which have some ground, may be reduced to two heads.  
The first is how Charles Count of Anjou, Brother to Saint Lewis, was invested with the Kingdom of the two Sicily's, against the children of the Emperor Friderick the II. Peter, King of Arragon, who had married Constance, daughter to Manfred, bastard of Frederick, claiming that Kingdom from his wife, made those bloody Sicilian Vespers An. 1281. An action which did incense the whole Christendom against that Peter, well surnamed the cruel; Pope Martin the iv especially a Frenchman by Birth and affection, who excommunicated Peter, and put his Kingdom in interdict. Not only by the general maxim of the Popes, that in certain cases they have power over the temporals of Kings; but because Arragon hath been, of great antiquity, a Fee of the Church of Rome. So the Pope dealt with that perfidious King as Sovereign of Arragon. To that purpose he sent a Legate into France which offered the Kingdom of Arragon to King Philip le Hardy for his Son Charles, Count of Valois. Whereupon Philip assembled the State's General at Paris, accepted the Pope's gift, and undertook the War against Peter; took Arragon, Gatalonia, & Valentia, and invested his Son Charles with these Kingdoms, paying five hundred Livers yearly to the See of Rome. It is true that after these Conquests, King Philip, as he returned into France, died at Perpignan, and the French soon after lost all that Country. Yet their right, if they had any by the donation of the Pope, remained as good as before.  
But the Spaniards contradict that right, saying, that in the time of the greatest confusions about that quarrel, a marriage was made between that Charles de Valois pretended King of Arragon, and Margaret daughter to Charles the TWO, King of Naples. To which Margaret the Counties of Anjou and Maine were given for her portion (which had been in the possession of Charles brother to St Lewis, and by him united to the Kingdom of Naples) with this proviso, That though Margaret should die without issue, Charles should possess these Counties, yielding all his right and claim to the Kingdom of Arragon, which Charles did, and so that great difference was ended.  
The second head whence the claim of the French upon Arragon doth arise, regards the second House of Anjou. The second Son of King John of France, was Lewis, who was invested with the Duchy of Anjou; A Prince well known in Histories, as he that was made regent of France, in the Minority of Charles the VI and after invested with the Kingdom of Naples by Queen Jane the first; a right which he prosecuted, and perished in the prosecution. But he left the title to his Children. His Son Lewis the TWO, married Yoland daughter to John the I. King of Arragon, and of Yoland of Bar his wife. The eldest sister of that Yoland, wife to Lewis the TWO, of Anjou, which was Jane Countess of Foix, being dead without issue, and no child remaining of John of Arragon, but that Yoland Duchess of Anjou, she was the undoubted Heir of that State; but her Uncle Martin, Duke of Montblanc, seized upon it. Lewis sent the Bishop of Couserans to represent his right. And when after the death of Martin, he would dispute his right by the sword, he was persuaded to put the business to an arbitrement; for the Peers and people of the Kingdom of Arragon, had chosen arbitrators to umpire the business between Lewis and Martin, and examine the claims of other pretenders. And though the Umpires were almost all Arragones', they would not pronounce any thing, so that quarrel remained undecided. And after the death of two martin's, Father and Son, the Arbitration being renewed, nine Arbitrators deferred the Kingdom to Ferdinand Brother to Henry the III. King of Castilia. That sentence was confirmed by the Antipope Benedict the XIII. who being forsaken almost by all the world, had taken sanctuary in Arragon. Against the nullity of that sentence, the Children of Yoland, Lewis the III, of Anjou and René, did protest. Yea, the Children of René make War in Arragon, to recover it in the time of Lewis the XI, of France; but they were constrained to forsake all, and Arragon remained with the usurpers unto this day. Yet I see not that the French urge much that claim, being somewhat too old to be now revived.   

Paragraphe V Of Catalonia.  
The like may be said of Catalonia, which is a great Province of Spain, bounded on the East and South with the Mediterranean Sea, and on the other sides with Valentia, Arragon, and Roussillon. It was both before the Romans and under them, part of Hispania Tarraconensis, as Arragon and other Countries near the River of Ebro. Since which time being conquered by the Gotths and alan's together, it was called by them Gottalania, which name was since corrupted to Catalaunia. It was under the Kings of the Gotths, till the invasion of the Saracens, an. 713. who made themselves Masters of it, as of most part of Spain; But Charlemain took it from them, and all the Country near the River of Ebro, about the year 800. expelling Zaron the Moor out of Barcelona, and put a French Garrison in it; not long after he gave it to Bernard, who was the first Count of Catalonia, and was a powerful and considerable man in the Court of Lewis the Meek; and the Counts of that Province, who then were but Goverours, were a long time ordinary Courtiers and Attendants of the French Kings. But by the idleness of the last descent of Charlemain, the Governors of Provinces; and of this among the rest, made themselves Masters.  
About the beginning of the third Race of the French Kings, the Family that ruled in Catalonia, was that of the Beringers. And that County was always separate from the Kingdom of Arragon, till the year 1131, when Don Alphonso King of Arragon, surnamed the Bellador, because he fought twenty two battles, being dead without issue, the people of Arragon took Ramires out of the Cloister of St. Pontius of Tomieres, where he had lived forty years a Monk, because he was of the Royal blood, and Son to Sanchez Ramires, King of Arragon. He was married by a dispensation of Anaclet the TWO, Pope, or rather Antipope, and had a Daughter named Petronilla, married to Raymond Berenger, Count of Catalonia. So Arragon and Catalonia were united, and never separated since. James King of Arragon, an. 1320. by the advice of the State of the Land, made the Law of union of the three Provinces, Arragon, Valentia, and Catalonia, not to be possessed separately any more. Together with that Law, Catalonia agreed with the King of Arragon, that she should have her forces and privileges apart; and that the Kings of Arragon, who took only the title of Counts of Catalonia, should oblige themselves by oath to observe that condition. This precaution of the Catalans hath justified their laterevolt, which the most conscionable among them have yielded unto, acknowledging that their King had violated that Treaty.  
It is a constant truth, that all that time, from the conquest of Charlemain, Catalonia, was a Fee depending from France; Charlemain made the first Counts of it, who were his Courtiers. The first upon whom it was settled, as a French Fee, was Geoffrey le Velu, invested by Charles le Gros, an. 885. And Bera Count of Catalonia, being accused of felony before Lewis le Begue offered to purge himself by a Duel after the manner of the time, in which being overcome, he was deprived of his Fee, and another invested with it.  
All that time also, all the public Acts of Notaries in Catalonia, were done in the name of the Kings of France, which is an undoubted mark of Supremacy, and all the Kings of Arragon, Counts of Catalonia, did homage for it to the Kings of France, till the year 1181. and in the beginning of Philip the Conqueror, when Alphonsus' King of Arragon called a Council at Tarracona, a Town of Catalonia, where under colour of conscience and respect to Religion, he caused an Order to be made, that from thenceforth the years of the French Kings should no more be put in the Deeds and Contracts of Catalonia, but the years of Christ. And the same King having neglected that homage to the Kings of France, that right was lost under Philip Auguste, Lewis the VIII. and St Lewis, the claim only remaining. In which consideration, likely the Princes of Arragon were educated in the Court of France; one of them was James, who lived in the time of St. Lewis, and had been educated with Philip le Hardy, who being come to visit that King, and having given him his sister Isabel to wife; the Spaniards say, that by reason of that match, and the session which James made to Philip of the Town of Monpellier, and of some other Lands which he possessed in Languedoc; the said King Philip quitted all his right of supremacy over Arragon and Catalonia. That Treaty was an. 1270, by which the Spaniards conceive that they have shaken the yoke of French Sovereignty. But whether that Treaty be valid or no, either for the fact or the right, that session being above 380 years old, it seems authentical, and the French have given over that claim.  
But they have another of latter date. For by reason of the massacre made in the Siclian Vespers, an. 1281. Peter King of Arragon, Count of Catalonia, was excommunicated, & his Lands put in interdict, and given to Philip le Hardy, by Martin the IV, Pope, or to his Son Count of Valois; but that right being the same, as the right which the French claim, or did claim upon Arragon, of which we spoke lately, we will not here repeat.  
So the French rights over Catalonia, are reduced to these two heads. The first is taken from the conquest of Charlemain, the estabishing of Counts and Governors in the same, the homage done to the Kings of France, the years of their reign ascribed in their deeds both private and public. The other is the same, as is pretended upon Arragon. Of both, the French make no great account. Only because of late years, Catalonia hath shaken the yoke of the Kings of Arragon and Castilia, and have given themselves to the French; it may be disputed, whether the French King may use any of these old stolen Titles, or whether he must ground the justice of his possession upon the donation which the Catalans have made to him, holding themselves free from the obedience of the Spaniard, by reason of the infraction of their privileges. Certainly in all particular Treaties, the unobservation of the conditions, freeth the parties from the obligations of the contract. But as for Sovereignty's, and the mutual obligations of Kings and Subjects, many will reason otherwise; saying, that although the obligation be mutual as for the conscience; yet as for the retrocession and the penalty attending the breach of the obligation, it doth not reach to Kings, whose actions are not censurable by the people; not by the nature of the contract which is mutual and reciprocal, but for the danger of the consequence which might authorise revolts. Others also will say, that a Country giving herself to a Prince, what privileges soever the people reserve to themselves by contract, they are all lost when they enter into subjection, which by its nature makes a man subject to another man without any exception, when the public good is concerned; & that those privileges by that subjection, pass into the nature of mere liberties and concessions of Princes, which they may stretch, diminish, and overthrow, according to their discretion. Certainly in all these contentions between the people, and the Sovereign passion and interests bear a great sway, & make conscience plead on both sides. But any reason will pass when there is strength to back it.   

Paragraphe VI Of the County of Roussillon and Sardinia.  
That little Country at the foot of the Pyrenees, and near the golph of Leon, was anciently part of Languedoc, and for a long time passed through the same fortunes and changes. It was for a great while part of the County of Beziers, and Duchy of Narbon. Then it came into the hands of particular Counts, which failing, the Country fell to the Counts of Catalonia. How, and in what time precisely, I find not. Only I find that in the time of St Lewis, Alphonsus his Brother, Count of Toulouse, and the King of Arragon, being in suit about the County of Roussillon. St Lewis was chosen Umpire, as bearing himself for Sovereign of both, who therefore ought to be their Judge, and he did adjudge it on the King of Arragon against his own Brother. It seems that holy King acknowledged the justice of their possession. For as that County was united with that of Barcelonia, it was held also by the same right.  
Since the union of these with the Crown of Arragon, it ran the same fortune with Arragon, and was conquered by Philip le Hardy, by virtue of the Interdict of Pope Martin the iv Philip died at Perpignan, and soon after, all was lost, and quited by Charles de Valois his second Son. But of that right, & all the pretences of the house of Anjou upon Roussillon, as upon Arragon and Catalonia, the French themselves make no great account.  
But upon Roussillon, the French have a Title altogether singular. John King of Arragon, that lived in the time of Lewis the XI. of France, being in War with his subjects of Arragon and Catalonia, as maintainers of his Son, Charles Prince of Vienna, and the true Heir of Navarra against him, and finding his Subjects too hard for him, as assisted by Henry, King of Castilia; desired Lewis the XI. to assist him, which he did with great might, having sent him a good Army under the conduct of Charles d' Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, who confirmed the Crown to John, and composed the difference between him and his Subjects. At which time, John engaged the County of Roussillon, and the Town of Perpignan unto Lewis the XI. for three hundred thousand Crowns which he borrowed of him. Lewis, notwithstanding many treacheries and attempts of the Arrogenese, maintained himself in that Country, and Charles the VIII. his Son after him, until the design of the Conquest of Naples.  
It was in the year 1492. that Charles the VIII. began the enterprise of Naples. And fearing lest Ferdinand, King of Arragon, Son to that John would assist the house of Naples, which was a branch of that of Arragon; or should enter into France in his absence, he returned unto him that County of Roussillon, gratis; not quitting, but not demanding the three hundred thousand Crowns; the King of Arragon having promised, and sworn upon the holy Cross, and upon the Gospels, that he would serve the King against all his Enemies in that expedition of Italy. The Governor of Perpignan did not yield, but after many iterated commands, seeing the importance of that restitution, and fearing the infidelity of Arragon. The French Historians blame James Maillert, a Franciscan Friar, Confessor to Charles the VIII. saying, he was won by Ferdinand to persuade the King to that restitution. But Ferdinand instead of helping Charles in his expedition of Italy, helped his Enemies in Italy, and disturbed his enterprise of Naples. Since which time, the French have often redemanded that County, as not redeemed with the three hundred thousand Crowns, and represented that they were circumvented by Ferdinand; but in vain, till finally the sword hath done what reason and justice could not. Perpignan being besieged, and taken by Lewis the XIII. of late years.  
Thus of those six rights which the French pretend within the limits of Spain. Those of Castilia, Portugal, and Arragon, are old and stolen. That of Navarra is in its full force by their ordinary protestations. That of Catalonia and Roussillon are no more pretended rights, the French having the real possession of them.   

Paragraphe. VII. Of the Kingdom of Naples.  
Out of the limits of Spain the French have three great pretences upon the house of Austria. 1. Upon the Kingdom of Naples. 2. Upon the Duchy of Milan, and the Commonwealth of Genoa. 3. Upon the Counties of Flanders & Artois. Because they pretend that these rights are in their full force, they must be exactly examined. We will begin at Naples.  
1. That part of Italy which is beyond Capagna de Roma, and comprehends these ancient Provinces, Samnium, Appulia, Hydruntum, Magna Graecia, Campania, Calabria, and others; all these, I say, which is well nigh one half of Italy, make up the Kingdom of Naples.  
Compania, now Terra di Lavoro, the River of Aufidus, now Ofanto in Puglia, and the River of Liris now Cantigliano near Capua, were made the limits between the Empires of the East and West, An. 803. Nicephorus then being the Emperor of the East, and Charlemain of the West. So that part of the Kingdom of Naples, and all that is on this side of the two Rivers remained with the Empire of the West. The part beyond them with the Island of Sicily, remained with the Emperor of the East.  
Not long after, the Saracens invaded Italy. The height of their fury, was about the year 850. and in the parts about Sicily, and Sicily itself, where they settled themselves. And for many Ages, those Countries were the sad stage, where the Latins on the one side, and the Greeks' on the other, and the Saracens enemies to both, acted a bloody Tragedy.  
2. About the year 1000, forty Norman Gentlemen returning from the Pilgrimage of the Holy Land, gave a powerful assistance to the Christians of the Kingdom of Naples against the Saracens, and being returned home, undertook not long after an expedition to Naples with more might, under the conduct of Tristan Cistel, a Norman. These gave the beginning to the State of Naples, partly by conquest, partly by marriage, under the names of the Counts of the Cross of Puglia, and Dukes of Calabria, and in time advancing their conquests as far as Sicily, they were crowned Kings of the same. To that Family of Normans, succeeded that of the Germans in the persons of Henry the VI and Friderick the TWO, Emperors and Kings of Naples. That Friderick being fallen into the hatred of the See of Rome, which is Sovereign of that Fee, he was deprived of that State. After his death his Son Conrard, and his bastard Manfred, and Conradin Son of Conrard, having laboured to maintain himself in it; finally the house of France was called to it after this manner, about the year 1262.  
3. By the falling out of all these Princes with the Popes, great confusions happened in Italy. The Pope Innocent the IV, weary of the Germane race, presented the Kingdom to Saint Lewis for his brother Charles, Count of Anjou, and Provence, who was reputed a great Warrior. And two years after, Vrban the IV, invested them with it, An. 1264. That Country which he held from the Church, contained the Kingdom of Naples, and the great I'll of Sicily, and was called Sicilia ultra & extra Farum, because of the Far or Straight of Messina, which separates the I'll from the Continent. But that Country was so given him by the Pope, that he was first to conquer it before he could enjoy the gift. Great Wars he had against Manfred, bastard of Friderick the II. Emperor, and against Conradin the Emperor's Grandchild, whom he took in battle, and beheaded him; A bloody execution, which caused much animosity, and Wars, between that house of France and the relics of the house of Suaben, which was Constantia, daughter to Manfred, wife to Peter, King of Arragon; who to avenge the death of that King Conradin, his wife's Cousin, & to repress the insolence of the French, was the Author of the bloody Sicilian Vespers, whereby the French were utterly expelled from Sicily An. 1261. and Sicily remained in the power of the house of Arragon; and since, although many Wars and Treaties have intervened to reunite these two States, they have always been separated, till the house of Arragon hath got the Dominion of Naples. Wherefore we will speak no more of Sicily, which the French lost in effect, in that massacre, and since quitted their right to it by several Treaties.  
4. But as for the Kingdom of Naples, that French Family of Charles d' Anjou, was settled in it, from the year 1264. until the death of Jane the TWO, An. 1435. in all 171. years, We intent not to relate that History, but only to observe these things which concern our present purpose.  
First, that Charles the Lame, the second King and Son to that first Charles, married Mary, inheritrice of Hungary, and so these two Kingdoms were united. Of their Children, the eldest Charles, surnamed Martel, had Hungary for his portion, and from him some Princes of Hungary are descended. The second Son was Lewis, who would be a Franciscan Friar, and was Bishop of Toulouse. The third Son Robert, inherited the Kingdom of Naples. There were more brothers who had several apanages. But it was not this Robert that continued the line of the Kings of Naples. He was Father to Prince Charles, who dying before his Father, left a Daughter, that famous, or rather infamous, Queen Jane the First, that ruled that State almost forty years.  
Next, it must be known that this wicked Jane, lascivious and cruel, so fare as to strangle her Husband Andrew, a young Prince of that other Branch of Hungary, filled her Kingdom with great troubles by her wickedness. Towards the end of her reign, an. 1378. happened the great Schism of the Church, when Urban the VI, being made Pope by violence, many Cardinals elected in his stead, Robert Cardinal of Geneva, who took the name of Clement the VII, Queen Jane being an enemy to Urban, who was born her subject, declared herself for Clement. Her crim whereby she had put her Husband to death, had been long covered by an accommodation made by Clement the VI, who appeased Lewis the great, King of Hungary, Brother to Andrew, whom Jane had strangled. But Pope Urban the VI, to be avenged of Jane, stirred again the House of Hungary against her, and a Prince of that House, named Charles de Duras, came and besieged her in Castello del Ovo at Naples, took her and strangled her, an. 1382. in the same place, as some say, where she had strangled her first husband.  
3. But the same Princess seeing that Urban invited the house of Hungary to the conquest of Naples, called to her help King Charles the VI, of France, a 1380. by the advice of Pope Clement. And by his leave, (for he bore himself for her Sovereign) she adopted Lewis Duke of Anjou, brother to Charles the V, of France, and head of the second house of Anjou. He was at that time Regent of France, in the minority of King Charles the VI From that adoption the French fetch their right in the Kingdom of Naples, for from the offspring of that Lewis, the French Kings have inherited.  
4. Charles de Duras, after he had strangled Queen Jane, seized upon the Kingdom, and reigned in her stead, and after him his two Children; first Ladislaus, whom the French Historians call Lancelot, and Jane the Second. They three held the State 53. years, from the year 1382. till the year 1436. But because Jane the first, a little afore her death, had adopted Lewis Duke of Anjou, that house of Duras had continual War with the house of Anjou. Lewis the I. came to Naples and there died. Lewis the TWO, his Son, had great Wars with Ladislaus, and for a time was Master of the Kingdom. That Ladislaus being dead without issue, an. 1414. his sister Queen Jane the Second, succeeded him, as bad a woman as the first Jane, for impudicity and extravagancy. She being degraded by the Pope, Martin the V: and Lewis the III, Grandchild of the first Lewis of Anjou, named by him to reign in her place; she adopted Alphonsus King of Arragon and Sicily for her Son, with whom that Lewis the III, had great Wars, and had sometimes the better, sometimes the worst. But Jane being of an inconstant spirit, despised Alphonsus, being altogether governed by her favourite John Carraciolo, which Alphonsus not able to bear, made himself Master of the City of Naples. Upon which she canceled her will made in favour of Alphonsus, and instead of him, adopted Lewis the iv of Anjou, who before was her enemy. That adoption made an. 1422. is the second ground of the claim of the French to Naples, and the seed of so many Wars and Calamities, and of the greatest divisions between the Houses of France and Spain. The Spaniards maintaining the first adoption as valid, because Alphonsus, though accused by Jane of ungratefulness, upon which she grounded the disannulling of his adoption, did nothing (as they say) against the respect due to his adoptive Mother; but only went about to repress the extravagancies of that light-brained woman, to have that part in her affairs which by right belonged to him, and especially curb the insolency of Carraciolo, who kept a scandalous familiarity with that woman. The French say, that the second adoption is of more validity: That the cause of ungratefulness is sufficient to break an adoption: That Alphonsus misused his adoptive Mother, seized upon the City of Naples, besieged her, and kept her shut up, and did all acts of Sovereign, to her contempt and disgrace.  
5. This Lewis the iv Duke of Anjou, having recovered Naples, enjoyed it with some peace together with Jane, but died before her, an. 1434. Because he left no issue, she adopted his Brother René Duke of Anjou, and herself soon after died. But René being then kept prisoner by the Duke of Burgundy, he could not go to receive his inheritance. His wife Elizabeth went, but too late, though at the first she got some advantage. In the end Alphonsus remained Master, and the party of Anjou was quite expelled out of the Land. Only René kept the possession of Provence, which was an appurtenance of that State: for since the first adoption of Lewis the I, Duke of Anjou, by Queen Jane the I. that second house of Anjou, had kept the possession of Provence. Neither did Charles de Duras, nor his Children, nor Alphonsus, possess any thing in it.  
6. René dying an. 1480. although his Daughter Yoland Duchess of Lorraine, had left children, he left the inheritance of the County of Provence, and of his Rights upon Naples. Charles Count du Maine, Son to his brother of the same name and title. And Charles dying likewise without issue, left Lewis the XI, his Heir in all his states, and the Kings of France successors to Lewis. Lewis neglecting to go to Naples held by Ferdinand, bastard of that Alphonsus, and by his Children, contented himself to hold Provence. But his Son, Charles the VIII. undertook the conquest of Naples, an. 1493. and after him, Lewis the XII, and Francis the I. In the next Chapter we shall see the several Wars, Partages, and Treaties, between these two Houses for that Kingdom  
So all the Rights of the House of France to the Kingdom of Naples, are reduced to these heads.  
1. The investiture by Urban the iv in favour of Charles brother to St Lewis. A weak Right if it were alone; the French Kings having not succeeded to that family by kindred; for all that belongs to any branch of the House of France, doth not therefore belong to France.  
2. The Adoption of Lewis the first, of the second house of Anjou, by Queen Jane the I. by the counsel and leave of Clement the VII. who was acknowledged by France for a true Pope. By that adoption the right of Naples fell to the house of Anjou, of which the French Kings have inherited.  
3. The two adoptions made by Queen Jane the II. first of Lewis the III. Duke of Anjou, and after him, of his Brother René.  
4. The will of Charles Count du Maine, who named Lewis the XI. his heir both of Provence, and of his right to the Kingdom of Naples, and his successors, Kings of France after him.   

Paragraphe VIII. Of the Duchy of Milan.  
After the wrack of the Roman Empire, an. 400. all the Countries about the River of Po, towards the Alps were taken by Theodorick Goth, and kept by his children, till about the year 550. that they were recovered by Belifarius and Narses, two Captains of the Emperor Justinian. But soon after the same Countries were won by the Ostrogoths, Kings of Italy; and again by the Lombard's, who settled a great State there, and maintained it till the time of Charlemain, who destroyed it, an. 774. After which time all the Towns of those parts were Imperial, belonging to whosoever had the Empire of the West. The house of Charlemain being degenerated and having lost the Empire, after the year 900. the Empire was disputed between the Italian and the Germane Princes for 50 years. In the end the Germans having prevailed in the person of Otho the I; & the Emperors his successors having chosen the seat of their Empire in Germany, and being at odds many times with the Popes, their power sensibly decayed in Italy, and great part of the Towns of Lombardy slipped out of their Dominion, and chose to themselves Italian Lords, the Emperor's retaining the shadow only of Sovereignty. Many also chose liberty, & a Popular State, as Sienna. Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and others. In these confusions the City of Milan was usurped by the Viscounts of Angleria, a small place in the Duchy of Milan, who maintained themselves about six hundred years under that name and quality of Viscount's, until the year 1497. that the Emperor Wenceslaus (not Friderick, as Gassan saith) erected Milan into a Duchy. The first Duke was Galeas the III. who had married Isabel daughter to John, King of France.  
That Galeas had three Sons, John Maria, that succeeded him and died without issue, Philip Maria that succeeded his brother, who likewise died without issue, leaving a bastard daughter named Bona, married to Francis Sforza, a Soldier of Fortune, but a gallant man. That first Duke Galeas, besides these two Sons had a daughter called Valentina, married to Lewis, Duke of Orleans, Son to Charles the V King of France, an. 1398. Her Father gave her the County of Ast for her portion, with a Million of Livers wherewith the County of Blois was bought, Chasteauduro, Soissons, and other Lordships. And by the contract of Matrimony, it was declared, that if the masculine line of Galeas should fail, Valentina and her children should succeed in the Duchy. It is true that this clause had this great defect, that the Duchy being established a masculine Fee, Galeas could not make it feminine without the Emperor's leave, which was not demanded, because the Empire was then vacant by the degradation of Wencestaus, whom the Electors deposed for his idleness. But it is pretended that the Pope Benedict the XIII. who then had his See at Avignon, approved that contract; for that right the Pope's challenge in the vacancy of the Empire.  
Howsoever John Maria, and Philip Maria, being dead without lawful issue, none had more right to that succession than the children of Valentina. But that succession fell in the heat of the confusions of France, under Charles the VII, when the two Sons of Valentina, Charles Duke of Orleans, & John Count of Angoulesme, were Prisoners in England, where the eldest remained five and twenty years, and the second well nigh thirty. In that long time it was easy for Francis Sforza, who had married Bona the bastard, daughter of Duke Philip Maria, to make himself Master of Milan, of which he procured, and obtained the investiture from the Emperor Friderick the iv This Francis Sforza had two Sons, whom he left to the tuition of his brother Ludovick Sforza, so famous in the History of Milan, who having made away his pupils, seized upon the State of Milan, and was expelled out of it by Lewis the XII. King of France, and since was taken & carried to Loches, where he died in Prison. He left two Sons, Maximilian, who was restored by the Swissers, and since taken by Francis the I. and died in France. His other Son was Francis Sforza the second, who died without issue, 1534. So that house of Sforza's maintained the usurpation of Milan well nigh a hundred years among many wars and divisions; the lawful right remaining still in the house of Orleans, with the possession of the County of Ast, which is part of that Duchy.  
But that right could not be prosecuted, 1. In the desolation of the house of Orleans, and the great divisions between that house and the house of Burgundy, 2. In the long inprisonment of the two Princes of Orleans, 3. In the great troubles of the State of France almost all the reign of Charles the VII. 4. Besides Lewis the XI. had many other businesses all his time. Neither did he love the house of Orleans, and the Princes of his blood; And of all things he hated the Wars of Italy, whither he would never go, neither for the conquest of Naples, nor for the receiving the City of Genoa that gave herself to him. 5. All the time of Charles the VIII, was spent in Civil Wars, or in the Conquest of Naples. And Lewis the XII, Grandchild of Valentina, coming to the Crown, an. 1498, had no more in the Duchy, but the County of Ast, the rest being held by Ludovick Sforza, Son to the invader Francis, and himself invader of the State of his Nephews. But Lewis following his right, comes to Milan, takes it and expels Ludovic, who returning not long after, enters into Milan, but there being suddenly invested by Lewis, he is taken, carried into France, where he dieth a Prisoner, Lewis remaining Master of the Duchy. But because Ludovic had two Sons protected in Germany by the Emperor Maximilian I. Lewis to strengthen his right, made means to win the Emperor's favour, of whom in the end he obtained two investitures of that Duchy. The one An. 1506 for Lewis and his children, and lawful Heirs, and Lewis for the acknowledgement of this investiture, paid him sixty thousand livers, and promised to give him every year a pair of golden spurs at Christmas. Also in that investiture, the exclusion of Sforza is precisely expressed, and a marriage concluded between Charles the Grandchild of Maximilian, who since was the Emperor Charles the V and Claude the eldest daughter of Lewis the XII. which also was comprehended in that investiture. The other was an. 1509. whereby the same Emperor confirms the former investiture, with a condition of the marriage between Charles and Claude, which indeed was not effected, but that hinders not the validity of the investiture, which was absolute, the first at least. By virtue of that right, Lewis remained possessed of that Duchy; but towards the end of his reign, Maximilian Sforza was put in possession of that Duchy by the Swissers, by the consent of the Emperor Maximilian, who was displeased that Claude, promised to Charles his Grandchild, had been married to Francis, who after was Francis the first King of France, which he took for an affront, and this was the first seed of the jealousies between the two houses of France and Austria.  
Francis the first having regained the Duchy, and taken Maximilian, neglected to do homage to the Emperor; and a while after Charles having succeeded his Grandfather in the Empire, the animosities grew to a great height betwixt these two Princes, and they became implacable, fight with great might about Milan, till that, by the Treaty of Madrid, Francis the first yielded his right, as we will relate in the next Chapter.  
To sum up the pretences of the French upon Milan; They are grounded, 1. Upon the contract of marriage of Valentina, who is substituted Heir of the Duchy, the lawful Heirs male failing; and the contract is valid, as confirmed by the Pope in the vacancy of the Empire. 2. The investiture given by the Emperor Maximilian, in favour of Lewis the XII. and his Heirs; yea of Claude and her children. 3. The second investiture, an. 1509. 4. Francis the I. having yielded all his rights by the Treaties of Madrid, Cambray, and Crespy, as we shall see afterwards; one may say that (besides the nullity of that session, by the right of the Kingdom) Francis may have quitted the right that came to him by his great Grandmother Valentina; but that he hath not quitted that which came to his children by Claude his wife, who being daughter of Lewis the XII. had for her and her issue the right of investiture both of 1505. and 1509. which her Husband could not take from her. And Francis made use of this reason among the nullities which he objected against the treaty of Madrid. In what time these cessions were made, and of what strength they are, the next Chapter will show.  
The Commonwealth of Genoa had also some dependence from the Kings of France. That City with the Country depending from it, having shaken the yoke of the Emperors (as the other Commonwealths of Italy, while the Italian and Germane Princes were contending for the Empire) formed itself into a most flourishing State. In the Wars of the East, and Conquests of the Holy Land, Genoa was very considerable, no less than the Venetians and Pisans, possessed many Countries in the Levant, the I'll of Chio, the Town of Capha upon Mar Major, in Taurica Chersonesus, and others. But the Commonwealth being weakened by the jealousies of two potent Families, the Fregosis and the Adorni, the State submitted itself unto Charles the VI of France, an. 1390. who taking them under his Protection, sent to them the Marshal of Boulicaut, who received their Oath of fidelity. But great confusions being risen in France, by reason of the weakness of Charles the VI for 29. years, by the invasion of the English, and by the extremity that Charles the VII. was brought to, that right over Genoa was neglected. But in the year 1458. the same Genoese being oppressed with their own divisions, sent Peter Fregosa into France to Charles the VII. who received them under his protection, and sent them John Duke of Lorraine, eldest Son to the Duke of Anjou. And after Charles the VII, having again given themselves to Lewis the XI, some Historians say, that he neglected that Conquest, so that they were forced to submit themselves to John Galeas, Duke of Milan. Others say, that Lewis the XI invested that Galeas in the Lordship of Genoa, upon condition of doing homage for it to the Crown of France. And Charles the VIII. passing to the Conquest of Naples, invested against Ludovick Sforza in the same by the Treaty of Vercel, an. 1494, he paying thirty thousand ducats of entry, in consideration of the auxiliary forces which Ludovick promised unto Charles for the Conquest of Naples. After Charles, the City of Genoa remained subject to the Kings of France, as Dukes of Milan, and Lewis the XII, made a triumphant entry into it, and received of them all the honours and deferences of Subjects to a Sovereign, an. 1502. and gave them a Governor, John of Cleves his Kinsman. But an. 1527. while Charles the V, and Francis the I, were in the heat of their quarrel, the City of Naples being besieged by Monsieur de Lautree, Andrew Doria of Genoa, subject to the French King, and General of his Fleet, being ill satisfied of Francis the I, revolted from him, turned to the Emperor, and was the cause of the loss of Naples. The Emperor to win him to his service, offered him lafoy cart blanch, that is, what conditions soever he would have. The first demand of Andrew was the liberty of his City, which he obtained, and it was freed from all subjection to the Dukes of Milan. But if the French have any right in the Duchy of Milan, they have the like in Genoa; for Charles the V could not cut off that limb from it, since it did not belong to him.   

Paragraphe IX. Of the Counties of Flanders and Artois.  
These two Counties were anciently before the conquest of the Romans, parts of Gallia Belgica, and so under that Empire, and under the first and second race of the French Kings, till that famous partage of the children of Lewis the Meek, an. 843. when the River of Scaldis being set as a limit of that which belonged to Lothary, the Emperor on the one side; and Charles le Chauve on the other, that Country remained within the partage of the last, who was King of France, and contains a great extent of Land beyond the River of Somme, near the Rivers of Scaldis and Lis, butting upon the Ocean. And because all that Country was full of Wood, which made it be called Sylva Carbonaria, Charlemain, about the year 771. placed there a Governor whom he called the great Forester of Flanders. So also were his successors called, and were not very considerable.  
The first that erected this Country into a County, was Charles le Chauve, an. 850. or thereabouts. The first Count was Baldwin, surnamed Bras de fer or Iron-arm, for his great exploits against the Normans, then barbarous and infidels, who coming from the North, infested those coasts both by Sea and Land. This Baldwin stole away judith Daughter to Charles le Chauve, and widow to an English King, which action at the first moved Charles to a great wrath and hatred against him. But judith having appeased her Father, and Baldwin being very necessary for the defence of those Countries against the Normans, he recovered the King's Grace, and it was upon that reconciliation, that he was made Count of Flanders. So that Baldwin is the head of that house of Flanders and Artois, which then were but one Province.  
1. All that Country remained thus united in one County, till the year 1180. when Philip August King of France, married Isabella Daughter of Baldwin the iv Count of Hainaut and Namur, and of Margaret of Flanders. For Philip of Alsatia, Count of Flanders, uncle to Margaret, to show his joy for that high alliance, gave her the Country of Artois, consisting in the Towns of Arras, Bapaume, Saint Omer, Aire, Hesdin, and some others which Philip August enjoyed, and his Sons after him, till Lewis the VIII, gave the Country of Artois to his third Son Robert, for whose sake his brother St Lewis erected the same into a County, of which this Robert did him homage, and that house of Artois was a Royal house for a long time after. Thus Flanders and Artois had their several Counts and Lords, as most of the other seventeen Provinces of Netherlands.  
2. King john of France having given to his fourth Son Philip, the Duchy of Burgundy, because he loved him dearly, he procured a great marriage for him, matching him with Margaret of Flanders, only Daughter of Lewis the III. Count of Flanders, and of Margaret of Brabant. That Princess was held the richest match of Europe, for she was Heir not only of the Counties of Flanders, Burgundy, Artois, Nevers, Retel, and other great Lordships, but was also apparent Heir (from her great Aunt by her Mother's side) of the Dutchies of Brabant, Lothier, Limburg, and the Marquesat of Antwerp. That alliance made an. 1356. was the beginning of the greatness of the house of Burgundy. For that Philip, and his three successors, john, Philip, and Charles, united all these great States, which afterwards fell into the House of Austria by marriage, as we have represented before.  
3. Although the propriety of those two Provinces, Flanders and Artois, came to the House of Austria by the match of Mary of Burgundy with Maximilian; the pretences of the Crown of France upon that propriety, being quitted by the reddition of the Town of Arras, an. 1435. Yet the sovereignty thereof hath remained with the French Kings, until the Cessions by them made of the same by several Treaties, of which the first was that of Madrid.  
That sovereignty is proved by seven Reasons. The first is, The homages which the Counts have always paid to the Kings of France for these Counties, and the investitures which they have taken from them of the same. The second, That the Kings of France have judged of the Counts of Flanders as Sovereigns, and given them Laws. The third, that they decided of peace and war in Flanders, even against the will of the Counts. The fourth, That they have given grace to Flemings as their Sovereigns, and punished them of their rebellions. The fifth, That it was especially promised and agreed, that the Flemings should resort to the Parliament of Paris. The sixth, That the Kings of France have protected as Sovereigns, the Counts of Flanders. The seventh, That they have confiscated the County for Felony. Briefly, the Kings of France have exer cised all Acts of Sovereignty in Flanders and Artois, a thing never brought in question or denied before Charles the V who being promoted to the Empire, and fallen to great Wars against Francis the I. was delinquent in that duty, and obtained the session of that right by divers Treaties.  
4. It is then a known truth, that Flanders and Artois did belong to the Sovereignty of France, and that the question is only, whether the session made at Madrid was just and valid. Upon which the French say,  
1. That Charles the V, being born a subject of France at Gant, in the County of Flanders, committed the crime of Felony by his Wars against his Sovereign, whom also he took and kept prisoner, which was often upbraided to him; yea a sentence of the Parliament of Paris, intervened against him, whereby he is deprived of his Lordships depending of the Crown of Ftance for crime of Felony; so that being a Felon against his Sovereign, he had no right either to treat with him when he kept him prisoner, nor any way oblige him.  
2. The session made by the Treaty of Madrid, was invalid by the Law of Nations, as done by a man kept in prison.  
3. That session made at Madrid, and in other Treaties, is null by the fundamental Laws of France which prohibit the alienation of the Sovereign rights of the Crown, especially without the consent of the State's General, who never ratified all those Treaties. And in effect, the Parliaments by their sentences, the Peers of the Kingdom by their Votes, and all the learned and judicious by their discourses have condemned those Treaties. And to this day the Flemings and Artesians are accounted Regnicolae, and have no need of letters of Naturalisation.     

CHAP. IV. Wars, Agreements, Treaties, between the houses of France and Austria about their pretences, from the Treaty of Arras to that of Veruins.  
WE have seen how by the History, and by Reason, the two Houses of France and Austria will ground their several pretences. As the differences between private persons beget suits in Law, which end in the sentence of a Court; so the jealousies between these two great houses have begot Wars, which have ended in Treaties: Yet so that the Wars have begun afresh after. These Wars have been many, especially since the promotion of Charles the V to the Empire, an. 1519. For the Kings of France, who without contradiction had the precedence before all Christian Monarches were grieved to see a Count of Flanders, and an Heir of the house of Austria, a small Province of Germany advance himself so far as to offer to step before them, and (as many think) to affect the Empire of all Europe.  
To understand all these Wars, Truces, and Treaties; the History must begin at the Treaty of Arras, an. 1435. For although these six houses, Austria, Burgundy, Hungary, Arragon, Castilia, and Portugal, the limbs of that great Colossus of the now house of Austria, were then several houses; yet that Treaty will serve to see how the house of Burgundy is fallen into the house of Austria, and how their greatness began. Here then let us say in brief, what Wars and Treaties have been between these two houses since the Treaty of Arras, an. 1435. to that of Veruins, 1598. We will divide this into many Articles, according to the most remarkable dates, touching only the most principal points, leaving the rest to the general History. 1. From the Treaty of Arras, Ann. 1435. to the marriage of Maximilian of Austria, with Marry of Burgundy, 1477. 2. Thence to the death of the Emperor Maximilian, 1519. 3. Thence to the Treaty of Madrid, 1525. 4. Thence to the Treaty of Cambray, 1529. 5. Thence to the Treaty of Crespy, or Saint John des Vignes, an. 1544. 6. Thence to the Treaty of Chasteau in Cambresis. 7. Thence to the death of the Duke of Alencon, and the beginning of the League, 1584. 8. Thence to the Treaty of Veruins, an. 1598.  

Paragraphe I. From the Treaty of Arras an. 1435. to the marriage of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy.  
In all that time, which was not yet the time of the greatness of Austria, the French Kings had nothing to do with that Family, which in that period of years, enjoyed the Empire in the persons of Albert, and Friderick the III They had also little to do with the Kings of Castilia and Arragon, which were then two several States. But much they had to do with the Dukes of Burgundy, founders of that greatness of Austria. Of which this is the summary.  
1. Philip le Bon after he had brought the State of France into great distress, and given it for a prey to the English, to avenge the death of his Father John, slain at Montereau Fautyonne, an. 1419; Finally being ill satisfied with the English, was forced to agree with Charles the VII, who had killed his Father, which he did by the Treaty of Arras, an. 1435. whereby Charles gave to Philip what we said before, Peronne, Montdidier, and Roye, the County of Artois, the enjoying of the County of Bullen for his life, also all the Towns of the River of Somme, redeemable with four hundred thousand Crowns, and promised to join to the Duchy of Burgundy, the Counties of Mascon, Chalons, Langres, Bar sur Siene, and Auxerre for ever, reserving the resort of these jurisdictions to the Parliament of Paris. This Treaty raised very much the house of Burgundy. After which, Philip was a loyal friend and servant unto Charles, and helped him to expel the English out of France. Neither did he meddle with the first falling out of Charles with his Son Lewis the Dolphin (who was since Lewis the XI.) which division was called, La Ligue de la Praguerie. And all the reign of Charles nothing considerable happened between these two houses but that towards the end of Charles, Lewis the Dolphin, having withdrawn himself discontented from the Court, and lived a while in Daulphiné, When the King his Father would have apprehended him by the Count of Dampmartin, he fled into Flanders, where he was received with great honour by Duke Philip, who assigned him the Town of Guenep in Brabant, to keep his Court, where he lived six or seven years, till the death of his Father, an. 1461.  
2. Now comes the reign of Lewis the XI, who had so much to do with the house of Burgundy, but nothing with that of Austria, and little with that of Arragon and Castilia. Historians observe, that Philip Duke of Burgundy, and his Son Charles Count of Charrolois accompanied Lewis into France, and were present at his coronation. And that Lewis at the first was very great with the Count of Charrolois; but that soon after that friendship was separated, by reason of the great antipathy of their humours, and because while Lewis was retired into Flanders, they had been too much acquainted with one another's conditions, which brought them to a mutual contempt. Also, because Charles had a suspicion that Lewis had plotted against his life, and because Lewis would have brought the gabelle (or impost of salt) into Burgundy, which the Duke did oppose. Then the sudden redeeming of the Towns of the River of Somme, for which Lewis paid the four hundred thousand Crowns, incensed the Count of Charolois very much. These were the causes of the great hatred between these two houses, which the house of Austria inherited together with the Estate. Hardly indeed could these two Princes agree; for Lewis the XI was malicious, disobliging, and dissembled; and Charles Count of Charolois was peevish and arrogant, and followed no Law but his own will. That hatred brought forth the War of the public good, as they called it, in which Charles had the better. That War ended in the Treaty of Conflans, whereby it was covenanted that the King should restore to Charles all the Towns of the River of Somme, redeemed not long before, to enjoy them all his life, and that he should have the County of Guines for himself and his Heirs for ever.  
3. John King of Arragon; was assisted by Lewis the XI, and the said John sold or pawned unto him the County of Roussillon for three hundred thousand Crowns. This is the ground of the claim of the French to that County.  
4. Henry the IV, King of Castilia, and John King of Arragon being in War, because Henry maintained the people of Arragon against their King, and about some Towns, Lewis the XI was chosen Umpire, and went to Bayonne, where he saw the Castilian on this side of the River of Vodazo, and upon the Lands of France. That interview made them despise one another, for Henry was an ill favoured and ill behaved man, of little wit, and was altogether governed by the Count of Lodesme. Lewis used a short and course habit, and wore a little leaden, Our Lady, at his hat. The vanity of the Count of Lodesme seemed ridiculous to the French. He crossed the River in a boat, with a sail of golden cloth, and wore pomps garnished with precious stones. Ever since that enter view, the two Nations have despised one another.  
5. After the peace of Conflans, the divisions were renewed between Lewis and the Count of Charolois, because Lewis cozened his brother Charles, gave him Normandy, and presently took it from him, banished him into Guienne, far from the other Princes, with whom he was in League, and gave him a little Country under the specious Title of Duke of Guienne. This angered the Count of Charrolois, and increased his jealousies. Philip Duke of Burgundy dieth an. 1467. Charles succeeds him.  
6. This new Duke of Burgundy is much considered in France, by reason of his great Lands, and turbulent spirit. All his time he was in Wars with the King, and brought the English into France. The King also did raise him Enemies, which his own rashness did multiply. He was defeated by the Swissers at Granson and Morat, and killed before Nancy, an. 1477.  
7. After his death, Lewis took the Duchy of Burgundy, and Provinces annexed to it, given by Charles the VII, to Philip le Bon, as a masculine apanage, with the Towns upon the River of Somme, which Charles was to hold all his life, not leave it to his heirs. He seized also upon the Town of Arras, upon which he pretended a right. He did his utmost to catch Mary the inheritrix of Charles, and desired the people of Gant to deliver her into his hand, or make her marry Charles the Dolphin, but they protected her, and soon after Maximilian of Austria married her.  
8. In Spain, after the interview of the two King, Lewis of France, and Henry of Castilia, and the sale or pawning of the County of Roussillon, King John of Arragon, seeing that Lewis had arbitrated in favour of the Castilian, and had sent John Duke of Calabria for the conquest of Arragon, took his time when the leagues in France were strongest against the King, to make Perpignan revolt against the French. The Garrison retired into the Citadel, and made it good till the Town was besieged by Lewis, and constrained to return to his obedience.   

Paragraphe II. From the marriage of Maximilian with Mary, unto his death.  
This period of forty years comprehends four reigns of the French Kings, the end of Lewis the XI, Charles the VIII, Lewis the XII. and the beginning of Francis the I: in which space the greatness of the House of Austria was founded by her union with that of Burgundy, and then with Castilia and Arragon.  

Under Lewis the XI.  
Since the death of Duke Charles, three remarkable things happened under Lewis the XI. Marry inheritrix of Burgundy, whom her Father had promised to many Princes, in the end was married to Maximilian of Austria, an. 1478. Lewis would have her for Charles the Delphin, but he was but six years old, and she above fifteen years elder than he. That preferring of Maximilian before Charles, was the cause of many evils to France.  
1. The loss of all that Mary possessed, which might have been united with France.  
2. The increase of the house of Austria, which began then to be jealous of France, which she was very far from before that alliance.  
3. Great Wars and endless envy, by the neighbourhood of these two great Houses. That marriage lasted but four years, Mary dying of a fall from her Horse as she was hunting; She left two children, Philip Archduke of Austria, Father to Charles the V and Margaret.  
2. By the jealousy risen between France and Austria by that marriage, and incensed by the revolt of the Prince of Orange, a great Lord of Franch County, they broke into open War, and the battle of Guinegast was fought, of which the event was so uncertain, that both parties ascribed to themselves the victory.  
3. Marry of Burgundy being dead, the Flemings, especially the Gantois always mutinous, would expel Maximilian, and dispose of Mary's Children. They married Margaret to Charles the Dolphin, and appointed for her portion the County of Artois, Franch County, and other Lands. Margaret was then but two years old, and Charles twelve. But Charles being married since with Anne Duchess of Britain, Margaret was sent back to her Father Maximilian, which was a new cause of jealousy between these two families. This Margaret being separated from Charles, was married to John Son of Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabel of Castilia whom she never saw: Then she was for the third time married with Philibert the TWO, Duke of Savoy: They say of her, that she was three times married, and died a Virgin.   

Under Charles the VIII.  
1. Charles the VIII, had civil Wars against Lewis Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Britain, and others which ended by the battle of St. Aubin; after which Charles married Anne the inheritrix of Britain: whereby he offered two affronts unto Maximilian; the one, that he sent him back his Daughter Margaret, withwhom he had been married seven or eight years; the other, that he married her with whom Maximilian was married by Proxy, for in Britain all the Proclamations were then made in the name of the Duchess, and of the Archduke of Austria. Upon which Maximilian made War against Charles, and took the Towns of Arras, St Omer, and other places which the French held as yet in Artois. But a Peace was made an. 1493. by which Charles was within four years to restore the Franch County, and some Towns which he held in Artois, unto Philip the Heir of Netherlands, Son to Maximilian.  
An. 1494. Charles restored to Ferdinand King of Arragon, Perpignan and the County of Roussillon, though he received not the three hundred thousand Crowns which it was pawnned for. The reason why Charles did so, we have declared before.  
3. The same year was the expedition of Charles the VIII, into Naples, against the house of Arragon. To that which we have said of that quarrel, this must be added. Alphonsus who was adopted by Queen Jane the II. and in the end expelled the house of Anjou out of Italy, left Naples to Ferdinand his bastard, saying, that he could lawfully do it, because it was his own conquest. The house of that bastard enjoyed it after him, and had four Princes, Ferdinand the Bastard, Alphonsus his Son, Ferdinand his Grandchild, and after him Friderick, uncle to this last Ferdinand, and brother of Alphonsus.  
Although that House of Bastards enjoyed Naples, the Kings of Arragon would say that it was by their toleration, because Alphonsus' King of Arragon, who had been adopted by Jane the II. had conquered Naples with the Arms, the Blood, and the money of Arragon, & that he ought not to have left it to any but hisbrother John, King after him of Arragon. Wherefore Ch. VIII. fearing lest Ferdinand King of Arragon Son to John, should disturb his conquest of Naples, either to assist that Bastard House, or to make it his own conquest, restored unto him the County of Roussillon, gratis, upon Ferdinand's promise, not to disturb him, yea & to help him; but Ferdinand broke his word with him. What was the right of Charles, was showed before.  
Charles with great expedition passed through Piedmont, Milan, Pisa, Florence, Rome, got the Kingdom of Naples without difficulty, and governed it without prudence, and instantly lost it by the ill behaviour of his Ministers, which got him the hatred of the Neapolitans. A league was made by the Pope, the Venetians, the King of Naples, and the Duke of Milan, not only to stay his conquests, but to stop his return, and destroy him in Italy. The General of the Army of the league, was Francisco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, who gave battle to the King at Fornova, which the King won with great glory. Being returned into France, he prepared to return into Italy, but died in that preparation.  
Whilst Charles was about the conquest of Naples, Lewis Duke of Orleans, who soon after was King of France, stayed in his County of Ast, and renewed his claim to the Duchy of Milan, possessed by the usurper Ludovick Sforza the murderer of his two nephews. As long as Ludovick kept good intelligence with the King, Lewis Duke of Orleans, durst not attempt any thing against him. But after that Ludovick had made himself one of the league against the King; Lewis possessed himself of Novara, a Town of the Duchy, which presently was besieged by Ludovick and recovered, excepting the Castle.   

Under Lewis the XII.  
In sixteen years that Lewis reigned, he had Wars with Philip of Austria, Ferdinand King of Arragon, Ludovick Duke of Milan, and the Kings of Naples, of the Bastard branch of Arragon.  
1. An. 1499. Philip Archduke of Austria, did homage at Arras in the hands of Guy de Rochfort, Chancellor of France, for the Counties of Flanders, Artois and Charolois, a solemn action done with great pomp, and many formalities.  
2. In the years 1499. and 1500. Lewis conquereth the Duchy of Milan from Ludovick, loseth it by the return of Ludovick out of Germany, regains it by taking and imprisoning Ludovick, and by the chase which he gave to his Sons Maximilian and Francis.  
3. From thence he goeth to Naples, conquers it from Friderick, the last King of the Bastard branch of Arragon, who puts himself into the King's hands. The King recompenseth him with the Duchy of Anjou, a pension of thirty thousand Crowns, and the first place in the Council. Ferdinand King of Arragon, seeing that bastard branch failed, reneweth his pretences to. Naples, Lewis compounds with him, and they share the Kingdom. The King of Arragon hath for his part Calabria, & Puglia, the rest remains to the French. But soon after, upon some differences which arose between the French and the Spaniards, for the confines of the Country of Abruzzo, and some Salt-pits, the grand Capitan Gonsalvo de Cordova, takes arms and expels the French, an. 1503.  
4. The Emperor Maximilian, after the year 1593. seeing the house of Sforza's degraded from Milan, but two Sons remaining, threatneth Lewis of the Imperial Ban. Lewis appeaseth him, and obtains the investiture of the year 1505. and promiseth his daughter Claud to Charles Duke of Luxemburg, who since was Emperor. But soon after Lewis, who loved dearly Francis d'Angoulesme his Cousin, and first Prince of his blood, made him marry Claud, by the counsel of the great men of his Kingdom, notwithstanding the promise made to Maximilian. This angered very much Philip Father to Charles, who would have taken a revenge of that wrong, had he not been prevented with death, an. 1506. He had married Jane the great inheritrix of Spain, by whom he had many children.  
5. Yet Philip before he died, reconciled himself with Lewis, yea, and recommended to him the tuition of his Son Charles, which Lewis accepted, and gave him Antony de Ceures Lord of Crovy, for his Governor, a wise Knight, who form that young spirit to great businesses in which Charles excelled afterwards.  
6. An. 1507. the City of Genoa which had been conquered with the Duchy of Milan, and where Lewis had made a glorious entry, revolted from him. Lewis passeth into Italy, and brings her to subjection. It was at that time that Ferdinand of Arragon returning from his new conquest of Naples, saw Lewis the XII, at Savone, a Town of the Territory of Genoa. In that interview, Ferdinand who was then King of two little Kingdoms only, both depending from the See of Rome, refused always the honour and the precedence which Lewis would give him, as it is usual to do to strangers when one is at home, even to inferiors. He would salute Lewis at his rising, and attended him going to Mass. Lewis, whensoever he gave to Ferdinand the precedence, made him understand that he did it out of civility, not out of duty. Go before (said he to him) for if I were at your house, and in your Country, I would in the like case do what you would desire of me; but because you are in my Country, you shall do so, for it is my will, and I beseech you so to do. That might be done then without prejudice, when the House of Arragon was fare under the splendour of that of France, and was not so arrogant as now. How such another encounter should be ordered in these days in point of civility, it is more than I can determine.  
An. 1508. the league of Cambray was made, of Pope Juliet the II. the Emperor Maximilian, Lewis King of France, and Ferdinand King of Arragon, and Naples, to beat down the arrogancy of the Venetians, who during the confusions of Italy, had encroached upon all their Estates, the patrimony of the Church, the Empire, Milan, and Naples. Whence followed the battle of Aignadel, which Lewis won of the Venetians, which made him so glorious, that the Popes and the Princes of Italy grew jealous of him. Ferdinand leaveth the alliance of Lewis, who had restored unto him all the Towns which the Venetians held in the Kingdom of Naples, and made war againsT him, Lewis wins the battle of Ravenna against the Pope and the Spaniards, an. 1512.  
8. Pope Juliet the TWO, being declared enemy to Lewis, and all his adherents, among whom was John d'Albret, King of Navarra, Ferdinand invaded Navarra, an. 1512. The Swissers, set on by the Pope, expel the French from the Duchy of Milan, and set up Maximilian Sforza, Son to Ludovic. The English and Maximilian being confederate, come into France and besiege Terovenne; Lewis comes to help, and gives the battle which was called of the Spurs, because though the French at the first resisted manfully, yet they were put to the worst, and forced to make more use of their Spurs then Swords.  
Finally, although Lewis had won the battle of Ravenna, an. 1512. he saw himself expelled out of all Italy, and the House of the Sforza's, restored at Milan before he died, which was an. 1515.   

Under Francis the I.  
In the beginning of his reign, he found the House of Austria in the hands of Charles, then of the age of fifteen years, who possessed all the Low Countries by his Father Philip of Austria, and the Kingdom of Castilia from his Mother Jane of Arragon. Maximilian was yet living, enjoying the Arch-dutchy of Austria. His other Grandfather, Ferdinand was King of Arragon and Naples, both very old and broken. Charles was their Heir apparent.  
1. Francis the I. coming to the Crown, received the homage of the Count of Nassau, in the name of Charles, Count of Flanders, and Artois, to whom he promised Renee, second daughter to Lewis the XII. But that marriage was not fulfilled. He confirmed also that peace with Ferdinand, which Lewis the XII. had made a little before he died.  
2. His next work, was the Conquest of the Duchy of Milan. He passeth into Italy, and wins the battle of Marignan in Piedmont against the Swissers, who had undertaken to maintain Maximilian Sforza in his new possession of Milan, which they had got for him. He gets Milan. Maximilian Sforza yields himself to him for a Pension of threescore thousand Crowns, and retires himself into France. This was the third time that the French had got Milan of the Sforza's.  
3. Francis and Charles being both young, and ambitious, it could not be expected that they should long live in peace, because Charles being born a subject to France, kept Navarra, which the house of Albret had lost for adhering to France; Then Ferdinand had expelled the French out of Naples, wrongfully say they. This Ferdinand died an. 1516. and Charles inherited all these great States, exalted to the height of greatness, wanting nothing but the Empire and Austria, which his Grandfather Maximilian left him by his death three years after. In the birth of these two eminent powers, which have cost so much, blood and tears to the Christian world, before they had conceived that great hatred which was between them after; the Deputies of both sides met at Noyon, and this was called the Treaty of Noyon, an. 1516, where it was concluded, that Francis should yield all his rights in the Kingdom of Naples for a yearly pension of a hundred thousand Crowns. 2. That Charles then called the Archiduke, should marry Lovise, the eldest daughter of Francis, instead of Renee, sister to the Queen Claude. 3. That the Archduke should restore the Kingdom of Navarra to Henry, Son to John d' Albret, or in defect of it that he should otherwise content him within six months. The King and the Archduke swore that Treaty, and give the one to the other, the order of Knighthood. The King that of St. Michael, the Archduke that of the Golden Fleece, made an alliance for ever; and to confirm it, promised to have an interview at Cambray. But Ferdinand being dead soon after, Charles made hast to pass into Spain to take possession of his Estates, and neglected the Articles of Noyon, especially the restitution of Navarra.  
4. Yet for three years after, nothing was stirred on either side, because Martin Luther having alarmed all Europe with his Doctrine, the Pope Leo the X procured a general truce for five years among all Princes. But Maximilian the Emperonr being dead, an. 1519. and Charles being increased with the inheritance of Austria, and the Title of Emperor; Francis the I. conceived a great indignation, that a vassal of his should have been preferred before him to the Empire, which he had been a suitor for with great earnestness; which jealousy would never suffer these two Princes to agree.  
5. Each of them had a great Minister of State by their persons, Francis had Artus Gouffier, Sieur de Boissi, Great Master of France. Charles had been bred by Guillaume de Crovy Sieur de Ceures, whom Lewis the XII. had recommended to him. These two foreseeing the misfortune which the ambition of these two Princes was drawing upon Christendom, resolved to meet to make a peace, and alliance for ever. Montpelier was the place chosen for that meeting. But as soon as Boissi was come, and began to treat with Ceures, he fell into a fever and died, leaving that great work imperfect, which no body since was able to finish.    

Paragraphe III. From the death of Maximilian, an 1519. to the Treaty of Madrid an. 1525.  
By the death of the Emperor Maximilian, Charles was made possessor of Austria, and the Empire, being possessed before of the Inheritances of Burgundy, Arragon, and Castilia. A greatness which swollen his mind, and made him lose his respect to Francis. He complained that Francis had taken Claude from him, the eldest daughter of Lewis the XII, which was promised to him. Francis redemanded Navarra, Naples, and the homages for the Counties of Flanders and Artois, which Charles took to be too low for the quality of an Emperor. Charles also complained that the Duchy of Burgundy, the Patrimony of his Grandmother Mary was kept from him, and the Duchy of Milan belonging to the Sforza's, and to the Empire.  
The great fire of War which lasted forty years between these two houses, broke out upon a very slender occasion. Robert de la March Duke of Bovillon, adjudgd by the Peers of his Duchy, which pretend themselves to be Sovereigns, the Town of Hierges in Ardennes to the Prince of Chimay, of the house of Crovi, against the Lord d' Esmeries; to whom the Emperor gave a writ of relief, although Robert pretended the judgement of his Peers to be Sovereign. Robert incensed against the Emperonr, made his address to Francis the I, and offered him his service. The King received him courteously, yet forbade his subjects to assist him, not willing to break with the Emperor. But Robert, proud to have the protection of France, denounceth War to the Emperor, who was then at Worms to pacify the troubles rising in Germany about Luther, and attempts to surprise some places in Luxemburg. But the Emperor presently seizeth upon the Estate of that little Prince, and constrains him to ask him pardon; reproaching Francis in an odious manner for receiving his rebellious subject. About the same time, Francis upon the inexecution of the Treaty of Noyon (Charles refusing to make restitution of Navarra to Henry d' Albret) took the quarrel of that dispossessed Prince, and sent Andrew de Foix, Lord de Esparre, brother to Monsieur de Lautre into Navarra, where the French did some exploit at the first, but were soon repelled by the Spaniards. Charles taketh that enterprise for an infraction of the peace between the two houses, though it was but a succour given to a confederate of France, to prosecute his rights. He makes great preparatives of war, makes Leo the X, break with France, & join with him promising that after the Conquest of Milan, he would give to the Church the Towns of Parma and Placentia, members of that Duchy, to which the Popes had some old pretence.  
Such was the origine of the first War between Francis and Charles, an. 1521. The first three or four years there were great exploits in Champagne, in Navarra, in Provence, and in the Duchy of Milan. In Tierasche the Emperor took Mouzon, and besieged Mezieres, which Anne de Mommorency, who since was Constable of France, and Chevalier Bayard defended bravely. And Francis took Bapaume and Landrecy from the Emperor, and gave him the Chase.  
In Navarra the French had advanced but little in the years 1519. and 1520. But in the year 1521. the Admiral of Bonnivet besieged Fontarabie and took it, and made Monsteur du Lude, Governor of the same, who being besieged a whole year by the Spaniards, defended it with great valour, till la Palisse since Marshal of France made them forsake the Siege. But Frauget an old Captain being made Governor instead of Lude, he delivered it basely to the Spaniards, for which he was degraded of Nobility. With this the French lost all Navarra, and never came into it since.  
For Milan, Francis having given the Government of it to the Constable Charles de Bourbon, he removed him and gave it to Lautree, of the house of Foix, a great Captain in the field, but an ill Politician in a State. He so misused the people of Milan, both by himself and by his brother the Marshal de Lescun, and together was so ill assisted with money from the Court, that the Emperor had an easy entry into the Country. Milan is taken, and plundered by the league of the Pope and the Emperor; and the French expelled out of the Duchy. At which they say, that the Pope died for joy, an. 1621. Soon after the battle of la Bicoque was fought, which the French lost by the stubborness of the Swissers. Lautree being returned into France, the Admiral de Bonnivet was sent to Milan, where he did no better, and was forced to forsake all. In that retreat Chevalier Bayard was killed, an. 1523. These prosperities of the Emperor were much helped, by the revolt of the Constable of Bourbon, 1522, who was incensed by the little account that Francis made of him, the encroaching of the Duke of Alencon, and the Marshal of Bonivet upon his Office of Constable, by the King's favour; the hatred of Lovise the King's mother, and the Chancellor du Prat against him; and the small justice which he expected in a suit which concerned almost his whole Estate. Being turned to the Emperor's party, he helped him to conquer Milan, and to give the chase to the Admiral of Bonivet, passed into Provence with the Imperial Army, besieged Marseille, where he is repulsed by Renso de Cera a Roman Baron, and Philip de Chabot that kept it for the King. He repasseth the Alps, and the King after him, who coming to Milan, recovereth presently the whole Duchy, Pavia only accepted.  
While Francis is besieging Pavia defended by Antonio de Leva, Charles de Bourbon brings Troops out of Germany to relieve it. The battle of Pavia is fought, where the victory being already on the King's side, he would follow in person the Enemy which was retiring, and had no sooner overtaken them, but he was taken by them, an. 1524. upon Saint Mathias day. Francis having been kept a while in the Castle of Pissigi●un, is carried into Spain, and there kept Prisoner. His Kingdom labours for his deliverance & for peace. This brought forth the Treaty of Madrid, an. 1525, where Gatinara Chancellor to the Emperor, and John de Selva first Precedent of Paris, who were the two learned among the Deputies, disputed at several times the rights of their Masters. Selva claimed Naples, Navarra, and the Soverainties of Flanders and Artois. Gatinara claimed the Duchy of Burgundy, and the Duchy of Milan which the Emperor then possessed. In the end, the Treaty of Madrid was made, where among other things it was concluded Febr. 14. 1525,  
1. That within the 20. day of the month of June next, the King will put the Durchy of Burgundy into the Emperor's hands, with all the appurtenances and dependences thereof, and all that he holds of the Franch County.  
2, That he shall renounce the Sovereignty of that Duchy and County, and of the Counties of Flanders and Artois.  
3. That he shall renounce all his claim to the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, Genoa, Ast, Douai, L'Isle, Tournay, and Hesdin.  
4. That the King with all his power shall procure that Henry d' Albret, forsake his claim to Navarra in the Emperor's behalf; or if Henry refuse it, that the King shall not assist him with his forces.  
5. That the Emperor shall likewise disclaim all his right to the Counties of Ponthieu, Bullen, and Guines, and to the Towns of Montdidier, Roye, Peronne, and other Towns and Lordships of Picardy.   

Paragraphe. iv From the Treaty of Madrid, to that of Cambray.  
That period contains but four or five years, in which many considerable things did happen.  
1. The King is delivered out of prison, giving his two Sons for Hostages, the Dolphin Francis, and Henry Duke of Orleans, goeth to Bayonne and Bourdeaux, stayeth at Angoulesme and Cognae, accompanied with Charles de Lanoy, Viceroy of Naples, to be present at the execution of the Treaty. But that Viceroy saw in short time three actions repugnant unto it.  
1. The first that the King having caused the Articles to be read in presence of the States of his Kingdom, they told him that they were unjust, contrary to the fundamental Laws of the State; and that he was not obliged to observe them, although the King did protest of his willingness to see them observed.  
Two things made these Articles unjust; 1. The right of Nations, whereby all Treaties made by one kept in prison, are accounted void as extorted by violence. 2. The fundamental Laws of the State, by which the King is always a Minor, as for the alienation of the royal patrimony.  
The second opposition to the Treaty in the presence of the Viceroy of Naples, was that the Deputies of the Duchy of Burgundy protested before the King, that he could not alienate them without their consent, and refused to submit themselves to the Emperor.  
The third, That he saw a league made at Cognac, for the expelling of the Emperor out of Italy.  
The Emperor having made himself formidable to all Princes, to the Italians especially, and going about to divest Francisco Sforza from Milan, which he had conferred upon him after the battle of Pavia, the Pope Clement the VII, King Francis, the Venetians, the Swissers, the Florentines, make a league which was called the Sacred league, to deliver Italy from oppression, without naming the Emperor, who also in a scorn was invited to make one in it, upon condition that he should restore the two Sons of France, suffer the Duke Sforza to live in peace, and give over the siege of the Castle of Milan. By that league the War was to be maintained with common charges. And because the Italian Princes might be afraid of the power of the French in Italy, no less then of that of the Emperor; King Francis was to renounce his right to the Duchy of Milan in favour of Sforza, for a pension which should be arbitrated by the Pope and the Venetians, not under fifty thousand Ducats. That the County of Ast should remain to the King, with the Sovereignty of Genoa, under the Government of Antonio d' Adornas, with the title of Duke, if he would subscribe to that league. The Kingdom of Naples was to be put into the Pope's hands, he paying for it sixty thousand Ducats of yearly pension. That league was published and proclaimed at Cognac, in presence of Lanoy, to whom the King made excuses for the inexecution of the Treaty of Madrid, showing how he was disabled and declared Minor by the State.  
3. Lanoy being returned into Spain, presently the War of the league gins in Italy, at Milan, at Rome, and at Naples. At Milan, the Duke of Bourbon General of the imperial Army, besieged Francis Sforza, whom the league had taken in her protection. Sforza is constrained to surrender the Castle and retire into the Army of the league, the General whereof was Francisco Maria, Duke of Urbino. The Duke of Bourbon having taken Milan, goeth strait to Rome, takes it, and is killed in the assault. The Cardinals are imprisoned and ransomed.  
At the same time Lautree was at Naples with an Army, and laid a straight siege to it by Land. And Andrew Doria with the Galleys of France besieged it by Sea. Yea, he won a battle by Sea, in which Moncado Viceroy of Naples was slain. But being ill satisfied of King Francis, who denied him the ransom of Prisoners, and used him with contempt, he turned to the Emperor, and relieved Naples with victuals by Sea. And Lautree presently after happening to die, the French lost all in Italy, and the Emperor settled himself in it with more power. He restored the Duchy of Milan to Sforza, and made him marry his niece Christina, daughter to the King of Denmark. Yet he cut off from that Duchy the Commonwealth of Genoa, which was made Sovereign at the request of Andrew Doria. He confirmed also Parma and Placentia to the Popes.  
4. While this War was in Italy, King Francis made a league with Henry the VIII. of England, and both declared War against the Emperor, who having said to the Herald of France, that his Master was not in a condition to declare War against him, till he had disengaged his faith and fulfilled his promises, which if he repent of, that he should return into prison to make a new Treaty.  
King Francis exasperated with these words, declared in presence of all the Court, that he would satisfy the Emperor by a Duel, and sent him a challenge, saying, that the Emperor lied, if he said that he had broken his word. The Emperor, though he made a show to answer the challenge, kept himself still to his answer, that King Francis was not in a condition to require satisfaction of him, till he had discharged his promise. So all these threaten vanished into smoke.  
5. While these Princes were thus contending, two great Princesses, Lovise the King's Mother, and Margaret the Emperor's Aunt, were labouring for an accommodation. By their means the Treaty of Cambray was made, which therefore was called the Treaty of Ladies, it was in the year 1529. By that Treaty a marriage was concluded between King Francis and Eleanor the Emperor's sister, widow to the King of Portugal; and it was agreed that King Francis should pay two millions of Gold for the ransom of his Sons. And that he should disclaim all his rights to the Counties of Flanders and Artois, and to the Duchy of Milan, and (as some add) to whole Italy, which is like enough, since the Treaty of Cambray changed nothing in that of Madrid, but that there was no mention of the Duchy of Burgundy.   

Paragraphe V From the Treaty of Cambray, an. 1529. to that of Crespy, an. 1544.  
By the Treaty of Cambray, War ceased between these two Princes, but not the jealousies and hatred: Yet they kept peace till the year 1533. when Merville an Italian Gentleman, the King's servant, was condemned and executed at Milan, because some of his servants had killed a man. But the secret and true reason was, that the Emperor had complained to Duke Sforza, that this Merville was at Milan as a Spy for the French, which was true; yea he was a secret Ambassador, and Sforza had desired that he should not openly take the title of Ambassador, for fear of offending the Emperor. That murder of Merville broke the peace; for the King taking Arms to chastise Sforza, the Emperor also took arms to defend him. It was at that time that King Francis instituted a new form of Militia, which was called Legionary.  
The Emperor also was incensed by the alliance which the King had made with the Germane Princes Protestant (though perhaps that name was not yet in fashion) who being persecuted by the Emperor for their Religion had their refuge to the French King, as the ancient confederate of the Princes of Germany, for the defence of the Rights and Liberties of the Empire. These Princes were the Dukes of Saxony, the Palatine, the Duke of Bavier, the Duke of Wertenberg, the Landgrave of Hesse. Yea, he lent a hundred thousand Crowns to the Duke of Virtenberg, who engaged to him the County of Montbeliard. But that engagement was simulate, and Francis did very willingly assist the Enemies of Charles. These were the motives and occasions of this War. Of which, these were the chief passages.  
1. Francis to pass to Milan, demands of Charles Duke of Savoy, passage through his Country. The Duke denies it by the instigation of Beatrix of Portugal his wife, sister in law to the Emperor, & very partial for him. That denial cost the Duke the loss of all his Lands, both of Savoy and Fiemont, which the King took, and kept them till the Treaty of Chasteau in Cambresis, an. 1559. The pretence of that invasion was the right which Francis pretended in these States from his Mother Lovise of Ravoy. A little before that invasion, the Emperor seeing that thick cloud threatening Milan, himself returning from Tunis with a weary and broken Army, sends to the K. propositions of peace, & many fair words. Yet he stood so stiffly upon the Treaties before, very advantageous for him, that the King would not hearken to him, perceiving that ne would only protract the time till he had recrewted his Army. Besides Francis Sforza being dead without children, at the same time the Emperor had seized upon the Duchy of Milan. And it was reported, that he intended to bestow it upon a Son of Portugal, his wife's brother. For these reasons these two Princes fall to action. The King conquereth Savoy and Piedmont, and the Emperor fortifies himself at Milan.  
2. The Emperor passeth into Italy, visits the Pope, Paul III, an. 1536, and in presence of the Conclave, inveighs against Francis, relating all that past between them ever since they came to their States, reproaching him especially for joining with the Princes of contrary Religion in Germany: And offereth three conditions to the King to choose which he would. The first was to give the Duchy of Milan to the King's third Son, the Duke of Angoulesme, not willing to give it either to the Dolphin, or to the Duke of Orleans, for fear (said he) of giving jealousy to the Italian Princes, if persons so near the Crown grew so powerful in Italy, especially the Duke of Orleans, who had lately married Catherine de Medicis, which had some pretences upon Florence and Urbino. If the King accepted that condition, he desired to know what assistance he would give him against the Turk and the Heretics. The Emperor's second offer was, to fight a Duel with the King, either upon the Land or in a Boat. That he left to the King the choice of the Arms; That the vanquished should give all his forces to secure the sitting of a Council, and to make War against the Heretics and Infidels. That the King should deposit the Duchy of Burgundy, and himself that of Milan to be the price of the Victory. The third offer was, that if the King refused these two conditions, he declared mortal War unto him, till one of the two was made the poorest gentleman of his Kingdom. The King purged himself to the Pope by letters of all the Emperor's accusations.  
The War grows hot in Piedmont, an. 1536. Many exploits are done, Fossan is besieged by Antonio de Leva for the Emperor, and taken. The Marquis of Saluees leaves the King's service and turns to the Emperor, who enters into Provence, and besiegeth Marseille, but in vain, being defended by the King's presence, and by the generosity of Ann de Montmorency, who since was Constable of France. The Emperor is beaten out of Provence. At the same time the Count of Nassan makes some exploits in Picardy for the Emperor, takes Guise, besiegeth Peronne, but is repulsed.  
4. Jean Capell the King's Attorney General, moveth the Parliament that a process be made against Charles as Felon, and Traitor against his Sovereign, of whom he held the Counties of Flanders, Artois, and Charolois, in fee. The Court of Peers hereupon assembled decree, that Charles should be cited with sound of Trumpet, upon the frontier of his States, to appear before them. And he not appearing, he was condemned, and his Dominions depending from the Crown were confiscated. Presently after, the King took many places in Artois.  
An. 1538. the Pope Paul the III. comes to Nice, where both the Emperor and the King met also; the Pope communing separately with each of them, for he could not obtain of them that they should see one another. Yet they concluded a truce for ten years. That meeting being ended, the King returns into France, the Emperor into Spain, but seethe the King by the way at Acquesmortes; They confirm the truce, and are civil one to another. Shortly after, the City of Ghent being revolted, and having killed their Magistrates, Charles desireth Francis to give him passage through his Lands, which the King granted him. In that passage the Emperor received all the royal honours. The King went to meet him at Chastellerant. In that interview, the Emperor gave the King some hope to give him satisfaction about the Duchy of Milan.  
6. An. 1641. the King sent Antony Rincot, a Spaniard that had taken sanctuary in France, to the Turk, and Caesar Fregosa to the Venetians. Both were slain upon the River of Po, going to Venice by Boat. This murder was done by the order of the Marquis du Guast Governor of Milan, who hoped thereby to get their Papers and Instructions, but they had been sent to Venice another way. The Marquis was accused and convicted of the fact by those that executed it, who were taken at Venice. Upon this the King breaks the truce of ten years. The Dolphin, who was since Henry the TWO, falls upon the Roussillon, besieged Perpignan, but is repulsed with loss. Charles Duke of Orleans, seizeth upon Lutzenburg. The Emperor on the other side makes a league with the King of England, enters Picardy, besiegeth Landrecy, but Francis relieveth it, and driveth the Emperor from the siege: Barbarossa the Turk comes by Sea to the King's help, takes the Town of Nice, wasteth those coasts of the Mediterranean sea, goeth away having done little good to the French, and ill satisfied of them, having given a great matter of obloquy against Francis, to the Christian Princes.  
In Piedmont, after many exploits on both sides, the famous battle of Cerisoles was fought an. 1544. and won by the French, the French General being the Duke of Anguien, the Spaniard, the Marquis du Guast.  
At this time Ferdinand King of the Romans, brother to Charles the Emperor, being sore pressed by the Turk in Hungary, sends a Dominican Friar, his Confessor to Charles to exhort him to peace; Charles is persuaded to it, and Francis also. Their Deputies meet at St. John des Vignes, in the Suburbs of Soissons, and begin a Treaty which soon after was concluded at Crespy in Valois, of which these were the chief conditions.  
That Charles Duke of Orleans, the King's second Son, should marry the Emperor's Daughter, or that of Ferdinand King of the Romans, at the Emperor's choice within six years; and for her portion, that the Emperor should invest the said Duke with the Duchy of Milan, or the County of Flanders, or Charolois, or Franch County, at the Emperor's choice likewise. And that upon his investiture with one of these, the King should renounce all his claim to all the rest, and to the Kingdom of Naples. That till there were Children born by that marriage, if the Emperor had before assigned the Duchy of Milan for the Lady's portion, he should retain in his power the Castles of Milan and Cremona.  
That the King should restore to Charles Duke of Savoy, all that he had taken from him on both sides of the Alps; yet that he might retain the Citadels as long as the Emperors kept the Castles of Milan and Cremona.  
That both the Emperor and the King should restore all that they had taken the one from the other, since the truce made at Nice by the Pope's mediation. This Treaty bears date of Octob. 18. 1544. and was executed, but the King restored many more places than the Emperor.   

Paragraphe VI From the Treaty of Crespy 1544, to that of Chasteau en Cambresis, an. 1559.  
Francis outlived three years the Treaty of Crespy, all which time he had no War with Charles, who had retired himself to Bruxelles. Francis being dead, his Son Henry the II. succeeded him, who also had no War with the Emperor till the year 1550. Two accidents made the old jealousy to break into open War.  
1. The Pope, Paul the III. had invested his Bastard, Peter Lewis, Farnesio, with the Towns of Parma and Placentia, which the Emperor had yielded to the Church upon the claim of Leo the X. without much examining the Pope's right, only because it had been so covenanted when the Pope and the Emperor united themselves to expel the French out of Italy, an. 1521. That investiture troubled Charles afterwards, who pretended, either that these Towns should remain united to the patrimony of the Church, or that in case of alienation they should return to the Duchy of Milan. Now this Peter Lewis, Farnesio, having made himself odious to his subjects, by his cruelty and impudicity, was slain by the people of Placentia, who put themselves under the Emperor's protection. At the same time Paul the III, being dead, Jules the III, that succeeded him, maintained at the first Octavio, Son to Peter Lewis, in the investiture of Parma and Placentia. But soon after repenting of that donation which he saw to be displeasing to the College of Cardinals, joined with the Emperor for the dispossessing of Octavio, who put himself in Henry the TWO, his protection; and that King powerfully assisted him both against the Pope and the Emperor, and was at such odds with the Pope, as to prohibit the bringing of any money out of France to Rome. At which the Pope amazed, desired peace of the King, and desisted to oppose Octavio, yea and caused the Emperor to restore Placentia to Octavio, since which time Octavio and his successors have enjoyed Parma and Placentia. At the same time the King protected also the Prince of Mirandola, whom the Pope would oppress.  
Before that time, an. 1545. the Emperor got a great victory over the Protestant Princes of Germany. Their two chief men, Friderick Elector of Saxony, and Philip Landgrave of H●sse were taken prisoners. Whereby the Protestant party was so humbled, that in the year 1550. they implored the help of Henry the TWO, of France, who passed into Germany to relieve them.  
The Constable of Montmorency in his way seized upon the Towns of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, upon the Rights which we have set down in the third Chapter. That enterpize of Henry in favour of the Protestants, made the Emperor conclude a peace with them in haste. So that the King being come to Strasburg, was desired by them to return, because they were agreed with the Emperor. Returning from Germany, he took many Towns in Lutzenburg, Rochemars, Danvilliers, Ivoy, Bovillon. And the Emperor towards the end of the year 1551. besiegeth Metz, so well defended by Francis Duke of Guise, that the siege was raised the first day of the year 1552 Terrovenne is taken and razed by the Emperor.  
The people of Sienna fearing lest that Cosmo de Medicis, Duke of Florence, should make himself Master of their Commonwealth, had put themselves into the Emperor's hands hoping that he would bring them in their liberty. But seeing that he would bring them under the subjection of Cosmo, they called Henry the TWO, to their help, who gave them Blaise de Montlue for their Governor, who since was Marshal of France; in his Commentaries he hath described how that City was besieged. But in the end they were forced to submit to the Florentine.  
In the year 1555. the Emperor Charles resigned the Imperial Crown to his brother Ferdinand, and all his other Estates to his Son Philip the II. A Treaty of Peace between Henry and Philip, was moved near Ardres, and perfected near Cambray, an. 1556. for ten years, and sworn by the two Kings Feb. 6.  
But presently after the death of Juliet the III. and the Pontificat of Marcel the II. which lasted but two and twenty days, the peace was broken upon the Election of Paul the iv a Neapolitan of the house of Caraffa, allied to that of Melpha, which had always been of the French faction, and was odious to the Spaniards, who used all their power to hinder his election; And when in spite of them he was elected, they raised two powerful Families of Rome against him, the Columna's and the Vitellies, who revolted against the Pope, being assisted by Philip. The King sends help to the Pope, so the Truce is broken. Many exploits of Arms were done about Rome. But, Octob. 14. 1557, the Pope and the Spaniard agreed, and Henry called his Army back.  
But at the same time Philip having married Queen Mary of England, made his wife declare War to Henry by a Herald of Arms, who spoke to the King himself at Reims, whence followed many various effects of war in Picardy and Champagne, till the memorable battle of Saint Guintin lost by the French, an. 1557. where the Constable was taken. But Francis Duke of Guise, newly returned from Italy, revived the sad condition of France by the taking of Calais, Guines, the Land of Oye, and the Town of Thionville.  
The two Armies of these two Princes being both in sight one of another in Picardy, near the River of Somme, the Constable of France and the Marshal Saint Andrew, both Prisoners of the Spaniard, the Pope's Nuntio and Christina Dowagar of Lorraine, Cosen-german to Philip, manage a peace which was concluded at Chasteau in Cambresis, in February 1559. By the first Article of that Treaty the French King was to execute religiously all the Treaties made between Charles the V, and Francis the I. (whereby they understood the cessions made of Naples, Milan, Flanders, and Artois) unless the present Treaty did contradict it; but that Treaty mentioned only the restitutions of the Towns taken on both sides, and the rendition of the States of Savoy and Piedmont to Philibert Emanuel, Duke of Savoy. Also by that Treaty a marriage was agreed on between Philip, then newly a Widower by the death of Queen Mary of England, and Elizabeth daughter to Henry the II. which for that reason was called the Queen of Peace. In the celebration of that marriage, Henry the TWO was slain.   

Paragraphe V From the peace of Chasteau in Cambresis, 1559. to the death of the Duke of Alenson, 1584.  
There was no open war between the two Crowns all that time which comprehends the reign of Francis the TWO, Charles the IX, and great part of that of Henry the III. But by the virtue of that Queen of peace, the Union was so great, that the troubles of Religion being risen in France, Philip assisted the French Kings with his Arms.  

Under Francis the II.  
In this reign of ninteen months, the History observeth two notable things, which are much for our purpose.  
1. The State of France being in trouble at the entry of this reign, by the great favour of the Guises, Uncles to Queen Mary of Scotland, wife to Francis the TWO, and by the Queen-mother Catherine de Medicis, who took the Regency of the Kingdom to the prejudice of Antony of Bourbon, King of Navarra, and first Prince of the blood of France after the King's brothers, who being kept low, and all the house of Bourbon with him seemed to threaten France of a Civil War. Philip the TWO considering that State of France, sent to Francis the TWO a letter which was read in the Council, whereby he said, that he had heard how some great men of France being ill satisfied of the Government established by him, his brother in law Francis, threatened his State of a Civil War. That he Philip was ready to employ all his Forces, and his life, to make him obeyed as his good confederate and neighbour, remembering the good instructions, and the holy education which his Father Charles the V, had received from Lewis the XII, his Guardian.  
2. The house of Bourbon, being degraded from the rank it ought to have had in the Court, Antony King of Navarra retired into Bearn; and when the Cardinal of Bourbon, and the Prince de la Roche sur Yon, conducted the Queen of Spain to her husband, he bore them company. Now because by the Treaty of marriage, that Princess was to be delivered to Philip upon the frontiers of Spain, the Duke de l' Infantasqua, and the Cardinal of Burgos came to receive her in the Abbey of Roncevaux, which was in Navarra. There King Antony protested that the Queen was not delivered upon the frontiers of Spain, but in the heart of his own Kingdom, that none should believe hereafter that Roncevaux did belong to the King of Spain.   

Under Charles the IX.  
All this reign passed among civil confusions about Religion, and scarce any dispute was between the two Crowns. Yea Philip furnished Charles many times with Forces to subdue his Protestant subjects. Only these things are to be remembered for our purpose.  
1. After the first peace with the Protestants, an. 1564, Charles made a progress about his Kingdom, and saw his sister Elizabeth Queen of Spain at Bayonne. There the Queen-mother had an earnest and secret conference with the Duke of Alba. It is thought they agreed about a mutual assistance between the two Crowns, against the Protestants of France and Netherlands; for in that year 1565. they began to stir in those Dominions of the Spaniard. Philip assisted Charles with some Troops, which kindness Charles could not return, the fire being kindled in all the parts of his Kingdom.  
2. An. 1566. two things were near to have made a breach between the two States. Bertrand de Montlue, whom his Father in his Commentaries calleth, Captain Peyrot, seeing peace in France, undertakes to make some conquest upon the Sea, comes to the Isle of Madera, subject to Portugal, and desiring to take water, is repulsed with Canon-shot, upon which he makes a descent into the Island with strong hand, besiegeth the Town, takes it, but is slain in that exploit. A complaint is made of this to Philip, as Uncle to the King of Portugal, as an infraction of the Treaty, in which Portugal was comprehended. Philip incenseth Charles against his own subjects about this, but the Admiral appeaseth Charles, showing that it was but a misunderstanding among private persons.  
Another business of that nature was that of Gourgues. Dominique de Gourgues was a Captain of Gascony, who in the Wars of Italy had been taken by the Spaniards, and ill used in prison. To be avenged of them, he went to Florida in the West-Indies, besieged the Fort which the Spaniards kept there, takes it by force, kills or hangs all the Soldiers, then returns into France. Of this, Philip makes high complaint unto Charles, and Gourgues was in great danger of his life; but he was protected by the Admiral of Chastillon, a Protestant, and an enemy to the Spaniards. He represented unto the King, that it was an Act of private revenge. Also, that a little before Melander, a Spanish Captain, had expelled out of the same Fort in Florida: John Rebaut of deep, with five hundred Frenchmen, whom he had killed or hanged every man with this inscription.  Not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans. 
The wisest French Historians affirm, and so did Gourgues himself; That not any private revenge, but the desire to punish that horrible treachery and murder upon his Countrymen, made him undertake and achieve that high enterprise.  
An. 1570. Charles married Elizabeth daughter to the Emperor Maximilian, a virtuous Princess, much beloved of her Husband. Shortly after Philip married another daughter of the same Emperor. This double affinity did confirm the friendship betwixt the two Crowns.   

Under Henry the III.  
Henry the III. returning out of Poland, an. 1574. passeth through Vienna, where he is well received by the Emperor Maximilian, although one of his Sons had been Henry's competitor for the Crown of Poland. Yea, the Emperor gave him wholesome counsels for settling peace in his State.  
An. 1577. The Protestants of Netherlands being oppressed by the Spaniard, and little helped by Mathias brother to the Emperor Rodolphus, whom both Papists and Protestants had chosen for the expulsion of the Spaniard, the States of those Provinces called Francis Duke of Alencon, the French Kings brother, who in his way thither, made himself Master of the City of Cambray; but being ill used by the Dutch, he returned home without doing any thing. But in the year 1583. he came again with the title of Duke of Brabant, and Count of Flanders, but he made no long stay there, having made a malicious attempt upon Antwerp and other Towns; and returning full of shame, he died at Chasteau Thierry, an. 1584. These enterprises of the Duke of Alencon, bred great jealousies between the two Crowns, and were taken for a breach of the peace. Wherefore also Philip assisted the League of France against the Royal house with great eagerness.  
An. 1579. Sebastian King of Portugal being dead in Africa, Philip King of Spain got the Kingdom, an. 1580. Among his Competitors was Antony bastard of Lewis, Prince Constable of Portugal, but pretending himself a lawful Son, as legitimated by the Pope Antony, expelled by Philip, retired into England, where finding no countenance he passeth into France, agreeth with Katherine the Queen-mother, who (as I shown in the third Chapter) had great pretences to the Crown of Portugal; and for some Lands in Portugal which he promiseth her, she gives him help, and raiseth an Army of Frenchmen under Peter Strozzi. They go to the Terceras, where some Hands held for Antony, where they had very ill success. That enterprise exasperated Philip very much, so that he was one of the first that signed the League. Some think it began at the death of the Duke of Alencon, when none remained of all the house of Valois but Henry the III, who had no Children, and was not like to have any; and the house of Bourbon (saving only the old Cardinal of Bourbon) was Protestant or favourer of Protestants. This encouraged the Spaniard to trouble the State of France, and the house of Guise to set up for themselves, under pretence of zeal of Religion.    

Paragraphe VIII. From the death of the Duke d'Alanson, 1584. to the Treaty of Veruins, 1598.  
This date comprehends the end of Henry the III. and the beginning of Henry the IV.  

Under Henry the III.  
Without examining the several designs of the League; this only we must know, that after the death of the Duke of Alencon, the Duke of Guise having form the League, made a Treaty with Philip the TWO, of Spain, at Joinville, whereby Philip promised him a monthly pension of fifty thousand Crowns to foment the League, which being not openly against the King, but after the kill of the Guises at Blois; and the King himself having entered into the League, under the title of Holy league against the Heretics; the animosities and designs of the King of Spain, against the State of France, were not plainly detected under this reign.   

Under Henry the IV.  
Here the League did rage, and civil War was in all parts of France. In these troubles Philip had a great hand, and Henry being once acknowledged King, was eeven with him, and powerfully Warred against him. But these things must be seen in order.  
Henry the III, being stabbed, an. 1589. after he had seen the revolt of most part of his Kingdom; Henry the IV succeeded him, and is acknowledged by the Protestants and part of the Papists. The Duke du Maine who kept Paris, receiveth Baptista Taxis, and others for the King of Spain, who raise parties for the degrading of the House of Bourbon, and the advancing of the League. In March 1590. Philip publisheth an Edict, whereby he exhorteth all Catholic Princes to join with him for the deliverance of Charles the X, (meaning the Cardinal of Bourbon, whom the League had made King) to the exclusion of the rest of the House of Bourbon.  
The same year 1590. King Henry besiegeth Paris. Philip sends the Duke of Parma out of Flanders with a great Army, who takes Lagny and raiseth the siege of Paris. The next year after, the Cardinal of Bourbon being dead, the Leaguers consult about the election of a King. Many of the Seize, that is of the sixteen men that governed Paris, affected to the Spanish party, vote for Philip's Daughter, Clara Eugenia Isabel, of which claim we have spoken before. But the Duke du Maine, who desired rather to have the Crown either for himself, or for some of his house, protracted that business, and turned it over to the State's General of the League. And in the mean while sent Precedent Jannin into Spain, unto whom Philip promised all assistance to the League, upon condition that his Daughter should be acknowledged Queen, either alone, or with such a Husband as she should choose. That Precedent returned, much offended with Philip's proceeding, especially because speaking of the Towns of France, he would say, My City of Paris, My city of Orleans; and ever since solicited the Duke du Maine to reconcile himself with the King.  
An. 1591. King Henry the IV, besiegeth and presseth Roven very sore. The Duke of Parma returneth, and maketh him raise the siege. Before the Duke of Parma came into France, he propounded two conditions to the Duke du Maine; the one, that he should put the Town of La Fere into his hands, which he did, and the Parmezan put a Garrison in it of four hundred Spaniards. The other, that he should press the assembly of the States of the League, to declare the Infanta Queen of France. Du main promised him to move the Assembly about it, and gave him hope that King Philip should be contented.  
In January, 1593. was the opening of the States of the League, where the Duke of Feria extraordinary Ambassador of Spain, declared his Master's zeal for the defence of Religion, desired them to choose a Catholic King, and to preserve unto the Infanta of Spain, the right she had to the Crown of France. Upon which that famous Arrest or sentence was given by the Parliament for the maintaining of the Salic Law. And though afterwards the Spaniards proposed the marriage of the Infanta with the Duke of Guise, or with Ernestus brother to the Emperor Rodolphus, they were rebuked by the States, as making a proposition contrary to the Salic Law. When they pressed again, that the Infanta should be acknowledged Queen with such a Prince as Philip should name within two months, they were answered, that when the States had chosen a Catholic Prince, if he was not married, they would consent that he should marry the Infanta. But the hope which Henry gave at the same time to the party of the League, that he would come to their Religion, destroyed all these designs of the Spaniard, and he was anointed King at Chartes in the beginning of the year 1594, and soon after entered into Paris, whence the Duke of Feria departed with the Spanish Garrison.  
The same year The Duke du Main having lost Paris, and seeing the League falling to pieces, went to Bruxelles, and asked secure of Ernest of Austria, Governor of the Country, who sent Charles Count of Mansfeld into France. Mansfeld takes lafoy Capelle, and returns into Flanders. But Henry having laid the Siege to Laon, Mansfeld returns, and in vain endeavoureth to make him raise the siege. The King takes Laon, passeth to Cambray, an Imperial Town which Balagni held with the Title of Prince, since the first voyage of the Duke of Alencon. The King confirmeth that principality to him, under the protection of France.  
Towards the end of the year 1594. Henry having broken most part of the League; declareth War to the Spaniard by the counsel of the Duke of Bovillon, by reason of Philip's open enmity against him, and the assistance which he had given to the League, and because he held from him La Fere, and La Capelle. That Declaration being made to the Archduke Ernest, he answered, that he would send word of it to King Philip; and a delay of two months being granted, War was proclaimed by a Herald. The War gins. The Duke of Bovillon hath ill success in Lutzemburg. King Henry passeth into Burgundy, makes his entry into Dijon, notwithstanding the resistance of the Duke du Main, and wins the battle of Fontaine Francoise in Burgundy, against the Duke du Maine, and the Constable of Castilia. The Count of Fuentes takes from him Catelet, dourlan's, and Han, and Cambray from Balagni. Martial d' Aumont opposeth the Spaniards in Britain, into which they were let in by the Duke of Mercoeur, Governor of Britain for the League, who had delivered Bla●et into their hands.  
An. 1595. King Henry got his absolution from Pope Clement the VIII. The Spaniards opposed it, representing Henry to the Pope as relapsed and impenitent; but Du Perron and d' Ossat, since made Cardinals, overcame that party.  
In the year 1596. Charles de Casaut, and Lovis d' Aix Viguier of Marseille, treat with the Spaniard to deliver the City into his hands. But Peter Liberta kept it in the obedience of his Sovereign Henry, and killed Casaut with his own hand.  
The same year Albert Cardinal of Austria, Governor of Netherlands, takes Calais and Ardres, and Henry retakes la Fere. He makes alliance with Queen Elizabeth of England, with the States of Holland, and with the Princes of Germany.  
In the year 1597. Ferdinand Teil a Spanish Captain, surpriseth Amiens, which suddenly is retaken by Henry. Cardinal Albert in vain attempted to relieve it.  
The year before, the Cardinal of Medicis, who since was Leo the XI. being in France to procure the execution of the Articles promised by the King when he received his absolution from the Pope, had been preparing his mind towards a peace with Philip the II. who seeing himself very old and drooping to the grave, sought to leave his Dominions peaceable to his Son, who was but weak in body and mind. Henry also desired to give peace to his subjects, tired and exhausted with continual Wars forty years together. So that Cardinal with the General of the Franciscans, Bonaventure, Calatagirona a Sicilian, disposed both the parties to a Treaty. The place was chosen for it at Veruins in February, 1598. where a perpetual peace was concluded between the two Crowns. And the Treaty of Chasteau in Cambresis, an. 1559. was confirmed with the restitution of places on both sides; And the frontiers between the two States, settled as they have been kept till the rapture of the year 1635.  
There, upon the dispute for precedence of Ambassadors, the Legate devised this expedient. He sitting under a Canopy at the board's end, set the Pope's Nuntio at his right hand, and after him the Ambassadors of Spain, John Richardot, Precedent of the Council of State in Flanders, John Baptista Taxis a Knight of the Order of Saint Jago; and Lewis Verriken first Secretary of State in Flanders. At his left hand were the French Ambassadors, Monsieur de Belliure, and Monsieur de Sillery, of whom the first was over against the Nuntio, and so preceded by one degree the first of the Spaniards.     

CHAP. V The Affairs between the two Crowns from the Treaty of Veruins till now.  
THat space of time we will subdivide into three.  

1. From the Treaty of Veruins to the death of Henry the IV.  
2. From that death to the rapture between the two States.  
3. From that rapture till now.   

Paragraphe I. From the Treaty of Veruins to the death of Henry the IV.  
After the Treaty of Veruins, the two States kept reasonable good intelligence. Philip the II. died in the time of the Treaty.  
The first difference between Henry and Philip the III King of Spain, was about the Marquesat of Saluces, which Henry redemanded of the Duke of Savoy, who did nothing but by the order of the Council of Spain; And the Spaniard would not suffer the French to possess any thing in Italy. An exchange than was made of Bresse for the Marquesat. Herein Philip did nothing against the alliance. For the Duke having broken his word with Henry, Philip refused to assist him, and to be a favourer of his perfidiousness, although the Count of Fuentes raised great forces to assist him.  
In the year 1602. was the conspiracy of the Duke of Byron. It was believed that the King of Spain had a share in his designs. But the depositions of the witnesses against him, speak only of Treaties and Intelligences with the Duke of Savoy, and of the sharing of the State of France among the conspirators. Yet they said that Byron should have had the Duchy of Burgundy, Franch County, and Bresse under the protection of the King of Spain. Fontanelles a Gentleman of Britain, who was convicted to have been one of the conspirators, for which he was put to death, was accused to have treated with the Spaniard to deliver the I'll of Tristan in Britain into his hands. But Henry, who had no mind to break with Spaniard, would take no notice of that treachery.  
The Spaniards pretence for these secret plots against France, was that Henry assisted the Rebels of Holland with men and money. Which the Spanish Ambassador having complained of, he answered that the money which he sent to the Hollanders was to pay his debts, for moneys lent to him during the civil Wars.  
As for the French Soldiers that served the Hollanders, he could not hinder his subjects to take party where they listed; and that some of them also served the Archiduke. Howsoever that assistance was so resented by the Spaniards, that they lost no occasion to stir disorders in France.  
Many things happened in the years 1605. and 1606. which shown the enmity of the Spaniard against France. As the Treason of Lost, Secretary to Mr. De Villeroy, who had intelligence with the Ministers of Spain, and let them know all the secrets of the Cabinet Council. He was discovered by one Rassis a Frenchman, that had taken Sanctuary in Spain. Lost ran away, and in his flight was drowned in the River of Marne, so no more could be known of that Treason.  
Then the Lady marquis of Vernuiel ill satisfied of King Henry, whom she accused to have broken his promise to her, treats with the Spaniard, and inveigleth into her treason her Father d' Antragues, and her brother the Count of Auvergne, since Duke of Angoulesm. Their design was to retire to the Spaniard, and to make one day that Lady's Son a stone of scandal unto France. Being discovered, all three were convicted and condemned to death. But the King gave them their grace.  
In the year 1605. the relics of Birons conspiracy appeared in the Provinces of Perigort Limousin and Quercy. All was done under the name of the Duke of Bovillon. Whether the Spaniard had a hand in it or no, it was not known.  
At the same time Mairargues a Gentleman of Provence treated with the Spaniard to yield Marseille unto him. He was discovered and taken conferring with the Secretary of the Spanish Ambassador, and put to death. This passage was near to have caused a breach between the two Crowns, for the Ambassador of Spain expostulated with the French King, because against the Law of Nations his Secretary had been taken and committed to prison. The King justified the fact, saying, that he was found monopolising againsthiss State. Nevertheless all was suddenly appeased: Although at the same time another Treason was discovered, a plot upon Laucate by two brother's Luquisses, who had been won by the Governor of Perpignan.  
In the year 1608. Henry the iv mediated a truce between the King of Spain and the Hollanders. At the same time the Moriscoes of Spain secretly implored his aid against the oppression of the Spaniards. But he sent them back, saying, that he would not be the first that should break peace, but that if he was compelled to make War, he might make use of their proffers.   

Paragraphe II. From the death of Henry the iv to the rapture between the two Crowns an. 1635.  
A year before the King's death an. 1609. John William Duke of Cleves and Juilliers being dead without issue left his succession disputable between the Emperor Rodolphus who said it was devolved to the Empire, and the children of four sisters of that Duke married in the houses of Brandenburg, Newburg, Deuxponts, and Burgan. It was thought that the great Army which Henry had prepared a little before his death was intended to assist these Princes against the Emperor. It seems the Queen Regent knew so much, for when the Archiduke Leopold had seized upon Juilliers after the King's death She sent Martial de la Castre to assist these Princes, to whom he caused luilliers to be surrendered. There the French had to do with the house of Austria, of the Germane branch.  
In the year 1612. the two Crowns were allied by the marriages, of Lewis the XIII. with Anne daughter to Philip the III, and of Philip Prince of Spain (who is now Philip the IV) with Elizabeth eldest daughter of Henry the iv And in the year 1615. these marriages were accomplished at Bourdeaux. The world was full of hope that this double alliance would strengthen the peace between the two Crowns.  
An. 1616 the Dukes of Savoy and Mantua being in War one against another about Montferrat, the Kings of France and Spain intervened to make them friends. And this was done without prejudice to the peace between the two States.  
Valteline is a valley seated between Germany, the Venetians, the Duchy of Milan, & the Grisons. It was in old time a part of the Duchy of Milan, or at least an appurtenance of the same. And was engaged to the Grisons by Lewis the XII. for four hundred thousand pounds' arrear, due to them for their service in the conquest of Milan, since which time it was subject to the Grisons. But the differences of Religion intervening and the Grisons being turned Protestants for the most part, Valtolina kept for the most part the Religion of Milan. Which made them desire to shake the yoke of the Grisons and return under the subjection of Milan, invited to it by the Spaniards. So that an. 1619. the great revolt began, and the Valtolins expel the Grisons their Masters. Who had recourse to the protection of France, by whom they held that Country. King Lewis the XIII. sends Monsieur de Bassompierre into Spain to Philip the iv (for Philip the III. was lately dead) who granted according to the Treaty of Madrid that all garrisons of strangers should departed out of Valtolina, and that order should be taken for the maintaining of the Catholic Religion. The Duke of Feria having refused to execute that command, and the Valtolins unwilling to return to the obedience of the Grisons. King Lewis exhorted the Swissers and Grisons to maintain their rights, and sent them an Ambassador the Marquis de Coenures whom he made afterwards General of their army and Marshal of France, known by the name of Marshal d'Estree Then did the French and the Spaniards fight, yet without breaking the Treaty of Veruins because both acted for their confederates.  
Pope Vrban the VIII. having made himself Depositary of the principal places of Val olina, sent his nephew Cardinal Barbarini into France an. 1625. who not being able to make an accommodation, as pretending to deliver Valtolina from the obedience of the Grisons, war began in Italy by the alliance made between the French and the Duke of Savoy against Genoa which was assisted by the Spaniard. Thus these quarrels upon the by, came very near to an absolute rapture between the two Nations. For at the same time some Spanish ships passing from Barcetona to Genoa and driven upon the coasts of Marseille were arrested by the Duke of Guise. Of which the Genoese complained to the King of Spain, whose Council irritated with these wars, and with the taking of many places about Genoa, gave order that all French ships in the havens of Spain, should be arrested, and all the goods of the French trafficking in Spain, seized upon. The Council of France to be even with them made two Edicts; the one to forbid all traffic with Spain, the other to seize upon all ships of Spain, Portugal, Naples and other places of the Spanish dominions; yet only by right of represalls and for restitution of the goods taken from the French.  
War continued in Piedmont all that while, till the winter of that year 1625, when the armies retired into garrisons. That winter Du Fargis the French Emassadour in Spain began a Treaty which was called the Treaty of Monson in Arragon, whereby without any Commission from his Master or his principal Minister of State the Cardinal de Richelieu (as it was pretended) he did greatly derogate to the right of the Grisons over Valtolina, making the Valtolins well nigh Soveraines, taking from the Grisons all power to refuse the judges and that form of Government which the Valtolins would set up among themselves. That Treaty was disavowed by King Lewis and the Cardinal who commanded the Ambassador to reform it. Wherein so much tedious protraction was used, that Lewis was in the end constrained to take upon him the protection of the Valtolins, and sent them the Duke of Rohan who there continued the war, even after the rapture between the two Crowns.  
In the year 1628. Vincent the II. Duke of Mantua being dead, Charles Duke of Nevers the next heir male succeeded; but the Emperor made some difficulty about it because he was borne in France, and because he did not come personally to him to render his homage. But besides his right of lapse for want of homage, he set up the right of Duke Guastullo of the same house of Mantua, which yet appeared at the first to be weak and of no force.  
At the same time, the Duke of Savoy renewed his rights to Montferrat. So the new Duke of Mantua saw himself almost swallowed up by the Emperor, the Spaniard, and the Duke of Savoy. Yea Don Gonzales de Cordova besieged Cazal, the old apple of discord between the houses of Mantua and Savoy. King Lewis, resolved to maintain his subject and confederate, sends Beuron and Guron to defend Cazal. Himself passeth into Italy, forceth Le pas de Suze, driveth the Spaniard from the siege of Cazal, and compelleth the Duke of Savoy to let the Mantuan be in peace.  
The Protestants in France being in arms, Rochel besieged, and their party brought low, some say that the Duke of Rohan sent Clausel from Montpellier to Madrid, to put the Protestant party under the protection of the King of Spain. The History of Dupleix sets down the whole Treaty between the King of Spain and the Duke of Rohan, whereby the Spaniard promiseth to assist Rohan with men and money. But Lewis returning victorious out of Italy, suddenly overcame the Protestant party, and forced them to receive peace. The Spaniard thought he might as lawfully assist the Protestants of France, as the French assisted those of Holland.  
Whilst Lewis was busy about the pacification of his own State, the Duke of Savoy reneweth his pretence to Montferrat, the Emperor sends Colalto against the Duke of Mantua; and the marquis of Spinola besiegeth Cazal, but in vain, being well defended by Toiras, since Marshal of France. Lewis repasseth into Italy, makes himself Master of Savoy and Piedmont. The Imperial Army takes Mantua, but all is pacified by the Treaty of Queyras an. 1631. and the Duke of Mantua is settled in his Estate.  
In that year 1631. Marry the Queen Mother of France retireth into Flanders. The next year 1632. the Duke of Orleans her son doth the like. Where getting some Dutch and Germane troops he makes an inroad into France; and in the year 1633. he makes a Treaty with the Spaniard to enter into France with an Army. All this without absolute rapture betwixt the two Crowns; Only the Spaniard fomented the divisions of the Royal house of France.  
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sueden, after a long war against Poland comes into Germany an. 1631. for the restitution of the Dukes of Meckelburg his kinsmen into their Estates, out of which the Emperor had expelled them, and to restore liberty to the Cities of Germany. Lewis jealous of the greatness of the house of Austria, and having causes enough to ressent the wrongs offered to him by the Emperor, made a Covenant with the King of Sueden for the defence of their common friends oppressed, the safety of the commerce upon the Sea, & the liberty of the States of the Empire. The King of Sueden promised the assistance of his arms and his person, and the King of France a million of livers per annum. Hence followed the great victories of Gustavus, till he was slain at the battle of Lutzen in Novemb 1632.  
An. 1634. the Duke of Orleans leaveth Flanders and returns to the King his brother.   

III. Paragraphe. From the Rupture of the peace till now.  
These mutual offences being accumulated, in the end broke into open war. It was declared by the French by a Herald in Flanders in May 1635. That declaration was grounded upon that old complaint, that the Spaniard aspires to the universal Monarchy of Europe, and to devour all the Princes thereof; and because the Spaniard vexed the confederates of France with wars, but more particularly by reason of the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Treves who had put himself under the protection of King Lewis. To all the complaints of the French, the Spaniards have their answers, and have enough on their part to complain. Howsoever this war hath produced many great exploits on both sides, in Germany, in Italy, in Flanders, in Spain. And though the fortune of war have alternative successes, yet France had hitherto the advantage of that bloody game, having stretched her dominions beyond the Rhine, united Lorraine to the French Crown, got many towns in Flanders and Artois, Perpignan and the County of Roussillon, and got a good footing in the Duchy of Milan. Besides Catalonia, which hath submitted herself to the Sovereignty of France. The greatest loss of the Spaniard is that of Portugal by the practices of France, whereby the King of Spain hath lost Brasill, and the East-Indies.     

AN APPENDIX To the foregoing DISCOURSE; Showing the Dispute about the precedence at the Council of Trent, between the Ambassadors of France and Spain.  
IT is certain, that before the formation of that great Colossus of the House of Austria about the year 1520. the Kings of France were acknowledged the first of Christendom next to the Emperors.  
The pieces wherewith the greatness of Spain is made up, are Provinces most of them feudatary of the Empire, or of France, or of the Pope; all these lately gathered up. But France is of an ancient, entire, and independent greatness.  
The Ambassadors of Charles the V had the precedence every where before those of France, because he was Emperor. But in the year 1555. when he resigned that quality of Emperor to his Brother, and his other qualities and states to his Son, perceiving that his Son wanting the quality of Emperor, could not keep that pre-eminence, he used this artifice. A little before his retirement from the world, he recalled from Venice his Ambassador, Francisco de Vargas, who being an Ambassador of the Empire, had a precedence before the French Ambassador. Then after the resignation of his States, he sent the same Vargas to Venice again, as Ambassador for himself and his Son jointly, although in effect Charles being devested of his dignities, Vargas was Ambassador of his Son only, hoping thereby to deceive the Venetians and others, by sending the same man. Vargas demanded of the Senate of Venice the same precedence which he had before. To which Dominique, Bishop of Lodeva, Ambassador of Henry the TWO, of France, made opposition, representing to the Senate, that Charles was no more considerable in the world; that when the Ambassadors of the Emperor Ferdinand should appear, he would yield to them; but that he would not yield to the Ambassador of Philip, but in all occasions of audience, ceremony, visits, and the like, he would take the first place, till the coming of the Imperial Ambassadors. The Senate fearing some ill issue of this dispute, gave order that the two Ambassadors should not present themselves at the ceremonies of the Feast of St Mark; and so the matter remained undecided all the year 1557, by the irresolution of that Commonwealth, and the simplicity of the French Ambassador. But in the year 1558. Francis de Novailles, Bishop of Acs, having succeeded that of Lodeva, renewed the dispute, and the Ambassadors of the Emperor Ferdinand being come, he demanded to be maintained in his Rights, and to have the first place after the Emperor's Ambassador, and courageously took it before Vargas; who seeing that the policy of Charles (who died at the same time) took no effect, and that he was considered only as Ambassador of Philip, began to extol his Master's greatness, and number his States and Sovereignty's which he possessed in fare greater number than the King of France. Saying that these customs of honour and precedence, must alter according to the time. That his Master was the greatest King of the world; fare more able to assist the Commonwealth with Arms, Men, and Money, than the King of France. The Bishop of Acs stoutly resisted him, and obtained of the Senate an Order whereby the precedence was adjudged unto him above the Ambassador of Spain. About which, when the Spaniard expostulated very earnestly, it was answered him, that the Commonwealth would not undertake to examine the greatness of their Majesties; but that they found in their Records, that in all Acts both public and private, Ceremonies, Visits, and Audiences, the Ambassadors of France had preceded those of Spain, and to that received custom they would keep. This answer offended Philip, who upon that called back his Ambassador. But Micael Surriano, the Venetian Ambassador in his Court, defended the decree of the Senate of Venice, and in some sort mitigated the displeasure of Philip, who yet in all occasions renewed that dispute.  
His greatest effort was four years after in the Council of Trent. To understand the right of precedences of Ambassadors, we must know, that in the Council there was three sorts of Assemblies; particular Congregations, general Congregations, and Sessions. In the private Congregations, the Doctors assisted with some Bishops, examined the questions of Faith and Reformation, and there no Ceremony of precedence was heeded. In the general Congregation all the Prelates assembled, the Legates were Precedents, every one kept his place of honour: It was a public action where questions were resolved, the Legates propounded that which was to be examined in the particular Congregations; every Prelate had right to speak and to vote; Ambassadors of Princes had audience after their Commission was examined, and that which was to be promulgated in the following Session was there concluded; Ambassadors kept their place there according to their rank. The Session was the solemn day, upon which after a Mass of the Holy Ghost, and a Sermon of a Prelate, or some eminent man upon the matter in question; the Prelate officiating, pronounced with a loud voice the Decrees resolved, which the Fathers approved with a Placet. In these Sessions, Ambassadors had also their place of honour, and at the Mass: That honour was seen by the place where they sat, by the Censer, and by the Pax, which was given them in the time of the Mass. Now whereas this Council was held at three several times, under there several Popes, Paul the III, Juliet the III, and Pius the iv In the time of Paul and Juliet, Charles the V, was Emperor, whose Ambassadors without contradiction sat above the French Ambassadors, who in the sixteen first Seffions appeared very little, and no place was held there under the title of Spain. Yet some things happened then which shown the eminency of the French Kings above all others, next to the Emperor. In the Bull of the Indiction of the Council Paul the III, dated an. 1542. the King of France is named after the Emperor in express terms, and all the other Princes comprehended in one general term, and that twice. Thus, Charissimos in Christo filios nostros, Carolum Romanorum Imperatorem, & Christianissimum Regem Franciscum, duo praecipua Christiani nomins firmamenta atque fulcra orare atque obsecrare institimus. A little lower. Supra autem dictos, Imperatorem Regemque Christianissimum, nec non caeteros Reges, Deuces, Principes quorum praesentia si aliàs unquam, hoc quidem tempore maximè, sanctissimae Christi fidei & Christianorum futur a est salutaris, rogantes atque obsecrantes per viscera misericordiae Dei, etc.  
In the beginning of the Council, an. 1545. Francis the I, had appointed for his Ambassadors, Claude D'Urfé Seneschal of Forests, Jaques de Liguieres, Precedent in the third Chamber of Inquests in the Parliament of Paris, and the Dean, Peter Danes, since Bishop de la Vaur. But being informed by some French Bishops that were at Trent, that there was little hope that the Council should do any good, he called back his Ambassadors who did not appear in the Council. Antony Filioly of Ganat, Archbishop of Aix in Provence was there for the King who in the first Session, when public prayers were made for the Princes, having required that the King of France should be named in express terms, as he had been named in the Bull of the Indiction, the Legates eluded that demand, and said, that the Fathers ought to be consulted about it, and none was prayed for in express terms but the Pope and the Emperor; all other Princes were comprehended in one general term.  
In the year 1546. Francis the I, sent his Ambassador Peter Danes, Bishop de la Vaur to the Council; At his reception, he made a fine speech, wherein he represented the State of Christendom, and the great disorders crept into the Church, even into the Court of Rome. At which when a certain Bishop did laugh, saying, Gallus Cantat. Danes replied readily, Utinam isto gallicinio, Petrus ad resipiscentiam & fletum excitetur. An Apophthegm which afterwards was rife in the mouth of the Fathers of the Council.  
An. 1547. when Paul the III, to a void the plague & the war of Germany, would remove the Council from Trent to Bolonia; the Legates consulting the Fathers about it, said that his Holiness approved of it, Communicato etiam consilio cum Imperatore, Christianissimo Rege, & aliis Regibus ac principibus Christianis, which is another expression of the honour which the Council did to the Kings of France.  
But in the third Indiction of the Council under Pius the iv an. 1561, in the Bull of the Indiction, Pius the IV, useth other words than Paulus the III, and Julius the III, had used before. Thus, Charissimos verò in Christo filios nostros Romanorum Imperatorem electum, caeterosque Reges, & Principes quos optandum sanè esset Concilio interest posse, hortamur & rogamus, without any mention of the most Christian King. Philibert de la Bourdesiere, Bishop of Angoulesm, Ambassador of France, in the Pope's Court expostulated with him by the King's order for that neglect, with protestation that notwithstanding that neglect, he would not hinder the progress of the Council; yea, that he had commanded his Bishops to go to the Council. The Pope answered, that he had charged some Cardinals to form the Bull, and that they had not heeded that Pointillo; and that after they had named the Emperor, they had not judged it necessary to name all the Kings, but had comprehended them under one general name. The Ambassador replied, that it was a Prerogative of the Kings of France, not to be comprehended under a general name. The Pope answered, that he could not foresee all things, and that another time order should be given, that the like error should not be committed.  
In the year 1562, the 18. of May, Lewis de Saint Gelais, Lord de Lansac, came to Trent, and three days after, Arnault Ferrier, Precedent of the Inquests of Paris, and Guy du Faur de Pibrac, chief Judge of Tolosa, sent by the King of France, who were received with great honour by the Council; yea great part of the Prelates subjects of the King of Spain went to meet them. But Ferdinand de Avalo, Marquis of Pesquera, Ambassador to King Philip, went out of Trent three days before, and retired to Milan, of which he was Governor, pretending a fear from the Protestants of Daulphiné and the Swissers, but in effect to avoid meeting with the French Ambassadors, who took their place in the general Congregation after the Imperial Ambassadors. Pibrac made a fine Oration, wherein he spoke very freely against the disorders of the Church, the small progress of the Council in such a long time, and for the liberty of voting in the Council, which was not to be expected from Rome. He was seconded by the two other Ambassadors, Lansac and Ferrier. The Pope complained of it, and said that the King of France had sent not Ambassadors, but Advocates of the Huguenots. And indeed the ill opinion which the Fathers of the Council had of the belief of these three men was a cause why the Council and the Pope dealt with them with more rigour. In the mean while the French Bishops came to the Council, conducted by the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was most honourably received by the Cardinal of Mantua, and the other Legates.  
Soon after the coming of the Cardinal of Lorraine, Philip the TWO, having called back the marquis of Pesquera, sent to Trent another Ambassador, Ferdinand Quigones, Count de Luna, who being gone to Germany before, to be present at the Coronation of Maximilian, Son to the Emperor Ferdinand, would know of the Fathers of the Council, what place they would give him. Upon which the Cardinal of Mantua, the first Legate, having consulted with the Ambassadors of France, and the Cardinal of Lorraine, he propounded unto them this accommodation, that as for them they should keep their place next to the Ambassadors of the Emperor, and that some other place might be found for the Count of Luna, over against the Legates on the other side, or after the Ecclesiastical Ambassadors, or in some other place out of the bench of the Ambassadors. To which the French answered, that they were sent by their King not to judge causes, or to decide of the Rights of King Philip, who was a good friend & brother in law to their King, Charles the IX: but if any would take their place, they were resolved to stand for it against all sorts of persons; which if the Council denied them, they had order to withdraw with all the French Prelates, and to protest of the nullity of the resolutions which should be taken in their absence. To which the Legate answered nothing. That declaration of the French, though generous, gave occasion to the affront which soon after was offered to them in the Council; for they are censured by posterity, for not requiring absolutely that the Spaniards should sit under them.  
An. 1563. The Legates fearing some division between the French and Spanish Doctors about their order in speaking, gave order that without distinction of Nations, every one should speak according to his seniority of Doctorship. But because some among the French Divines had the seniority over the Spanish; these made great complaints to the Legate, pretending that this preference of the French, would be a prejudice against the dispute which the Count de Luna was forming against the French Ambassadors. The Legates rebuked them, showing that the Doctors, though sent by the Princes, did not represent their persons as the Ambassadors did: and that the question was only of the seniority of the degree, not of the preference of the Nations. Notwithstanding these satisfactory Reasons, the Spaniards were angry, and threatened the Council of their King's displeasure, who should take off his protection from them.  
The French seeing that the Spaniard stood upon points in such a clear business, and that of Doctors they would make Ambassadors, did obstinate themselves also to have the preference even in the disputes of the Divines. And because the Pope's delegates spoke first without contradiction, the French asked to be admitted to speak next after them, which the Legates were constrained to grant: and it was decreed, that after the Jesuit Salmeron, the Pope's Divine Nicolas Maillart Dean of the faculty of Paris, should speak; and that after that, all should speak according to the seniority of their degree, which was followed. Yet to content the Spaniards, it was enacted in the Register of the Council, that the French Doctor had spoken the first by the right of his seniority in the degree of Doctor, not by the preference of his Nation.  
The same year 1563. upon Easter-day, the Count of Luna was received at Trent, and in his entry mached between the Ambassadors of the Emperor, and of France. This Ceremony passed with much honour and civility between the two Nations. And at the same time, the Cardinal of Lorraine writ to the Emperor perour Ferdinand (who was at Insprugh in the County of Tirol, three day's journey from Trent) upon divers affairs of the Council: and in the end of the Letter, desired him to find some temper to lay down the dispute about the preference between the two Crowns, so that it might not appear in the Council. But his Countrymen blamed him for it, saying, that he ought not to have taken notice of a dispute so ill grounded: Or if he had spoken of it, it should not have been to have desired a temper, but to maintain his King's right. The Emperor answered him, that it belonged not to him to decide the disputes between the Kings of France and Spain; but since he had desired him to speak his sense about it, if your Ambassadors (said he) maintain their rank after mine, and that none take that place from them; what does it import you what place be assigned unto the Spaniards? A verdict ill taken by the French, who held it to be of a dangerous consequence. For in an order of sitting, who so leaveth his place (say they) is thought to despise it, and to ask a higher, which cannot be done without moving a dispute against those that sit in a higher seat.  
The Count of Luna after that solemn entry, was hidden forty days, and appeared not in any ceremony of public action, being in great perplexity how to behave himself; sometimes he had a mind to enter into the assembly in the midst of the two Ambassadors of the Emperor, who were enjoined to bear him company; and after they had taken their place, stand by them till his Commission had been verified by the Council, and then retire to his house. But considering that this would not be a generous maintaining of his Master's honour, he made means that the French Ambassadors should be desired not to appear in the Assemby that day; which being denied him, he sent some Spanish Bishops to the Legates, to propound unto them, that the secular Ambassadors of Princes, should not enter into the general Congregations but the day of their reception, but should content themselves to be present at the Ceremony, the day of the Session, maintaining that it had been so observed in the Counsels before. But all the Ambassadors of Princes having opposed that motion, he could obtain nothing. Again, he caused some Bishops to propound some point to the Congregation, at the discussion whereof, the French ought not to be present as interessed parties; for example, to represent what damage would result to the whole Church by a peace of the King of France with the Hugonots, or some such thing. But all that being rejected, and the Congregation being put off from day to day by his obstinacy; in the end that the businesses of the Council might not be retarded: the Cardinal of Lorraine, and the French Ambassadors declared to the Legates, that if they might keep their place immediately after the Emperor's Ambassadors, they did not care what place the Ambassador of Spain should take.  
The French to this day exclaim against that action of the Cardinal, and the French Ambassadors, saying that it was a great weakness, and that they had betrayed their Master's honour. Yea, the Fathers of the Council disliked it. And when the Cardinal de la Bourdestere, Resident for the King of France by the Pope, complained to him of that Spanish ambition, and novelty introduced against all ancient orders: the Pope (it was Pius the iv) answered, that he should complain to the French Ambassadors, whose weakness he condemned, saying, that although he had been solicited before and after the entry of Count de Luna into Trent, to favour that design he had remained constant and inflexible; and that he wondered how the French had so easily, yea so freely yielded.  
The day of the Congregation being come, and each Ambassador having taken his place, the Count of Luna enters, stands over against the Legates, some what far from the Ambassadors seat, presents his Orders, and declares his Masters will. Then he protested, that although the first seat was due to him next to the imperial Ambassadors, as representing the greatest Prince of Christendom, the greatest Prop of the Courch etc. yet that he should bring no confusion to the affairs of the Council, he desisted from that right; upon condition that this his protestation should be inserted into the Acts of the Council; so that they could not be printed, nor otherwise published without it; and that a Copy signed by the Legates should be given him by the Secretary of the Council. Having said these words, he went to take his place appointed for him, near the Table of the Secretary of the Council.  
The French Ambassadors sitting by the Imperial, answered, that if it was thought that the place where they sat was not the most honourable next to that of the Emperor, as it had been acknowledged in all the Council before, the last of which were that of Constance, and that of Lateran, under Leo the X; Or if the place assigned to Count de Luna, might be a prejudice against them, they desired the Council to prevent it speedily by orders, commands, excommunications, or other ways, practised in such a case without acception of persons. But because none answered any thing, and the Imperial Ambassadors connived to that novelty (although their interest was to hinder it, lest their place should be once disputed) they added: That without injury to the honour of King Philip, and the alliance between the two Crowns, they protested against that proceeding as unjust, requiring that their protestation should be inserted in the Acts of the Council, and that a Copy of the same should be delivered unto them.  
None of the Fathers spoke one word upon these disputes. And the silence was broken by a Spanish Doctor called Frontidon, who made a Latin Oration in the name of Count de Luna, whereby he exalted the greatness of the King of Spain, his zeal towards the Church and Religion, with such impertinent words, & so much contempt of other Princes, that the Ambassadors of the Emperor made great complaints about it to Count de Luna, who had no other shift to excuse it, than saying that the Oration had displeased him more than any.  
The Promoter of the Council having answered the Oration, suddenly the Ambassador of Spain went out of the Assembly, not expecting the rising of the Legates, to avoid a dispute with the French, and the same he observed in the following Congregations, sitting by himself and going out alone.  
But that Order could not be kept in the Church the day of the Session, because the manner of sitting there was not alike, and some more precise ceremonies were used about the preference, as that of the pax, and the censer at the Mass. Wherefore the Legates consulted the Pope before the Session, and he being won by the Spaniards, thinking that the French would again run into another weakness, writ to the Legate that in the Session they should assign a place apart to the Spaniard, and that the pax and the censer should be given to both the Ambassadors at the same time; but that the business should be kept secret till the point of the action, that the French might not storm at it.  
The day of the Session being come, which was Saint Peter's day, the 29. of June, after the Bishop of Valdaosta in Savoy had begun the Mass of the Holy Ghost, presently a Chair of black Velvet was brought out of the Vestry, which was placed between the last Cardinal and the first Patriarch, where Count de Luna sat. The Cardinal of Lorraine with the French Ambassadors, made a great noise about it, and rose to withdraw, when at the same time they heard the order given about it, and for the Censer & the Pax. But for fear of troubling the action, they contented themselves to protest against it, and to declare that their Masters right did not consist in the equality, but in the precedence. The Gospel being read whilst a Divine went up into the Pulpit to make a speech, the Legates with the Cardinal of Lorraine, and the other Cardinals, the Ambassador of the Emperor, and Ferrier one of the French Ambassadors went into the Vestry; into which they called the Archbishop of Granada, a Spaniard, and two French Bishops to find some accommodation. After many disputes, and many go and come and messages to Luna, it was concluded that the Mass should be ended without receiving the Censer and the pax. After which, Luna came out of the Church with his Spaniards triumphing for that first step so advantageous to his Master.  
This action was very scandalous to the French; and the Legates not able to bear the envy of it, were constrained to produce the command which they had from Rome about it. The injury was more resented, because it was done to a King in his minority (it was Charles the IX) and one that was afflicted with Hugonots, and entangled in a civil War. The Cardinal of Lorraine writ very smart letters to the Pope about it; yet without violating the respect due to him. But Ferrier a violent and stout man, cried out every where, that unless at the next public Mass the preference of the Censer and the Pax was given to his Master he would protest aloud, not against the Legates, who had obeyed the Pope's Orders, nor against the Council, whose hands were manifestly bound, nor against King Philip, who took his advantage where he might, nor against the Roman Church, toward which he should never lose the due respect, but against the very person of the Pope, whom he would prove to have bought the pontificat, and would appeal from him to a lawful Pope, and to a true and free Council. And that his Master would celebrate a Nationall Council, as numerous and as General at that of Trent. It is certain that Ferrier & Pibrac (for Lansac was returned into France) had prepared a most bloody speech against the Pope, and against that innovation. Ferrier was to pronounce it, and at the same time command all the French Bishops and Doctors to leave the Council, with a promise to return whensoever God had given a lawful Pope to his Church, and restored to the Counsels their ancient and full liberty. The speech was printed, but not pronounced. Ferrier spread it among the Fathers, because Count de Luna boasted that the Legates had promised him that at the first Mass he should be admitted to the equality of the Pax and Censer.  
The Legates fearing, lest this quarrel should come to some sad issue, because the Ambassador of Poland declared, that if the King of France should departed from the obedience of the Council, the King of Poland would soon do the like, and many other Princes; The Legates I say, and the wisest of the Council, especially Madruvio, Cardinal of Trent, of the Imperial party, thought it expedient that thereafter public Masses should be said without the Pax and the Censer, and made Count de Luna approve of it. And the King of Spain hearing all this proceeding, thought he had got a great advantage. But the Pope lost by it, for the affront done to the French in that Council hindered the publication of it in France.  
Shortly after, the Cardinal of Lorraine retired to Rome, and Ferrier declaimed in a general Congregation against abuses and disorders crept into the Church, and spared no body. The Pope was much displeased at it, and to allay that heat, sent the Cardinal of Lorraine to Rome with full authority to regulate all with the Legates. He was present at the 24th Session held November 11. 1563. which is of the Sacrament of marriage. And having received order from France to return without delay with all the French Bishops, the Legates hasted to make an end of the Council, and held the 25th Session which was the last upon the 3d. and 4th. of December, in which Session, as in the precedent, the Ambassadors kept their place. Luna sat by the Secretary of the Council. In the public Masses neither Pax nor Censer was used. So the Council of Trent ended the 4th. of Decem. 15 63. & the Cardinal Moron, at that time the first Precedent, giving his blessing to the Fathers, told them Post gratias Deo actas Reverendissimi Patres, Ite in pace. And all answered, Amen.  
But because it was the custom at the end of the Council, to make acclamations to bless the Popes that had assembled it, the Fathers that had held it, and the Princes that had assisted it, and protected the Church; the Cardinal of Lorraine took himself the care to make them, and to pronounce them also; Which he was blamed for, as taking upon him that care which less becoming his Eminency, and more fitting for Deacons, Promotors, Secretaries, and Masters of Ceremonies. Especially he was blamed because in the acclamation made for the secular Princes, he forgot to name expressly the King of France, which had been observed in the Bull of the Indiction, as we said before, and the omission whereof in the calling again of the Council by Pius the IV, had caused so much discontent and expostulation. Of this the Cardinal could not be ignorant, nor pretend forgetfulness; since those acclamations were meditated and written down.  
There was two acclamations, the first for the memory of the dead, in which the Cardinal forgot to express the names of Francis the I. and Henry the TWO, who had contributed their care and their zeal for the good of the Council. The second was for the Princes living, where he forgot Charles the IX, who had sent his Ambassadors & his Bishops to Trent. So he forgot both the dead and the living. That omission was objected to the Cardinal in the King's Council. He excused himself upon the fear he had to make a division between the two Crowns, King Charles being yet in minority, in danger of a civil War, and of the disorder which Germany was fallen into upon the quarrel of Religion; Whereby the King might have need of Philip, whom therefore he would not provoke or incense against France.  
Thus that weakness which the Cardinal and the French Ambassadors showed in the Congregations, Sessions, and Acclamations, having not with vigour enough defended the right of their Masters, was defended by them with plausible reasons; but, in effect, they opened the gate to the pretences which the Spaniards form at every meeting of public Assemblies, Processions, and Ceremonies, against the French Ambassadors, who hitherto have stoutly defended their right. At least they have kept the two essential points of precedence, which are; first, never to have left their place, either second, when the Ambassadors of the Pope and the Emperor were present, or first, when they were absent. The other, never to have suffered or done any action which may be interpreted to give an equality to the Spaniard with them. As for the order of sitting, which should oblige the Spaniard to sit under the French; one can not take him by the hand to bring him to an Assembly when he pretends sickness or business. But if he appear in a public meeting, the French suffers him not to use any action either of preference or equality.  
Since the Council of Trent, the most famous meeting of the two Kings in the persons of their Ambassadors, or rather the only, was that of Veruins, an. 1598. where the French had the precedence, as we shown before.  
FINIS.