TWO HORRID MURDERS; ONE, COMMITTED UPON THE PERSON OF HENRY the Fourth of FRANCE. THE OTHER UPON HIS SON IN LAW, CHARLES the First of ENGLAND.  
Of the various and lasting Tortures endured by the Murderers of the One (extracted out of Mr. HOWELL his History of LEWIS the 13 th'.)  
And of the easy short Punishments undergone by the Murderers of the Other.  
Though for the Atrocity of the Fact, They were not inferior to the First, but considering all circumstances, and complication of Treasons went beyond Him.  
By JAMES PARRY of Poston, Esquire.  
LONDON, Printed for Henry Broom at the Gun in Ivy-lane, 1661.   

DEDICATED IN ALL HUMBLENESS TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord high Chancellor, AND PRIME OFFICER OF THE CROWN of ENGLAND.   

OF THE TWO HORRID MURDERS, OR PARRICIDES (The Worst sort of Murders) Committed upon HENRY the Fourth of France, and CHARLES the First of England.  
These two Execrable Murders, together with the Murderers, as they agree, and hold parallel in many things, so they differ in some other.  
They agree touching the Atrocity and heinousness of the main Act, both the Murders being perpetrated upon the Sacred Persons of two Great Christian Kings; And that They were Murdered by their own vassals who were bound unto Them by solemn Oaths of Allegiance, Fidelity and Obedience; They agree, that as the French Assassin alleged that he was lead thereunto by certain Illuminations which he was contented to call afterwards Tentations, so the Infernal Murderers in England pretended to have New-lights ever and anon; They both agreed in an abominable kind of blasphemy, in that they made God himself the chief Author thereof, and that it was his work more then Mans.  
They differ, In that the Murder in France was committed by one single Assassin, for he would never confess in the highest agonies of Torture, that any knew of it but Himself, no not his Ghostly Fathers, for fear of discovery; for so he said the Intent might be punished for the Deed.  
But the English Murderers, may be called an ugly Hydra with many heads, who after divers previous consultations committed the Crime.  
The Murder in France was sudden, close and Clandestine, But that in England was long a moulding, It was done in the face of the Sun, and pretended to be done according to Justice, and the Laws, in which particular they far exceeded Ravaillac in a hellish kind of impudence; It was done before the chief Gate of his own House which was always held a sanctuary.  
Moreover, Henry the Fourth was quickly put out of pain, but King Charles was Crucified as it were long before His death; For those Murderers like so many Hellhounds may be said to have worried Him up and down from place to place, from prison to prison a great while, where they studied how to make him weary of His life before they took it away; For they bereavest him of those things which conduce to the common comfort of mankind, (whereof the most infamous Fclou is not barred of,) as Wife, Children, Chaplains, Servants; and place still about Him those whose faces He most abhorred, which put Him in perpetual apprehensions of being Murdered privately; And if He was found to like any of His Keepers, they were presently removed from about Him.  
Lastly, The Murderers differ in point of punishment, for though the English were higher in mischief, being not only Traitors to Him their King upon earth, but also to the great King of Heaven, and to their own Country, having so sacrilegiously plundered the One, and plunged the Other in blood and war, yet They had but a short kind of punishment, lasting scarce a quarter of an hour, which took away the sense of feeling the rest.  
But He of France had lingering Tortures instead of punishments, which extended to the utmost length of time, possibility of sense, and possibility of nature, as is mentioned in this Incomparable Histroy, which touching this point gins as followeth.  
There was a gentle Calm through all Christendom, and France had not the least share of it, having continued twenty years together in a constant repose without the  tintumarre, or motion of Arms, A rare thing amongst so spriteful and quicksylvered people to whom Peace becomes a surfeit any longer than they have picked up their crumbs to feed a new war, say there was a Catholic peace throughout Europe when Henry the Fourth of France would needs get a horseback upon a great Martial design which was a mystery for the time, so that all men stood at a maze what he meant, the business was carried so closely, whereupon he raiseth a potent Army of Horse and Foot.  
But behold the greatest example of the libricity and instableness of mundane affairs, and of the sandy foundation whereon the highest pomp and purposes of Men are grounded that any Age can parallel, For this Great King (as I told you before,) having a most powerful and a kind of irresistible Army of about 40000. combatants, all choice men, conducted by Veteran Commanders, and the most expert that Europe could afford, and all of them well appointed and in perfect equipage; The King having also a mount of gold as high as a lance (as the French writers have it,) estimated at sixteen millions of treasure to maintain this Army; He having assured his Confederates abroad, and settled all things at home; He having also caused his Queen to be Crowned in the highest magnificence that could be with intent to appoint Her Regent in his absence.  
Behold this mighty King amongst these triumphs of his Queen, being to go the next day to his Army, when his spirits were at their highest elevation, and his heart swelling with Assurances rather than Hopes of success and glory, going privately in the afternoon to his Arsenal to view his Artillery, He was stopped in a small street by so contemptible a thing as a Collier's cart, and there, from among the arms of his own Nobles who were with him in the Coach, he was thrust violently out of the world by one of the meanest of his own vassals, who with a prodigious hardiness fastening his foot upon the Coach-wheel reached him o'er the shoulders of one of his greatest Lords, and stabbed him to the very heart, and with a monstrous undantedness of resolution making good his first stab with a second, dispatched him suddenly from off the earth, as if a Mouse had strangled an Elephant.  — Sic parvis pereunt ingentia rebus. 
The French stories speak of divers Auguries and predictions of his death; but I will insert here a passage or two that are not to be found in any Printed Author, therefore not vulgar, And our intent is to refrain from stuffing this Piece with any thing that hath been too much blown upon. The first is a Prophecy in an Italian Manuscript from a good hand written above a hundred years since, which runs thus, Un Gran Re di Francia havendo le spalle all papa voltate sinchmerd poi a Roma, dallo piu alto della sua gloria.  

Le tagliterà la vita,  
Un coltell feroce  
Che n'andarà la voce  
Per tutto il mundo.   
Thus rendered into English,  

A Great French King having his face  
Turned from the Pope, shall then embrace  
The Roman Faith, but after, He  
At highest pitch of Majesty,  
Shall by a Fatal knife be rend  
To all the World's astonishment.   
To this may be added the speech of Francico Corvini a Toscan ginger, who the night before the said Henry the fourth was slain, leaning upon a balcone in Florence which is near upon 600. miles distant from Paris, and as he was prying into the motions of the stars, he suddenly broke out of his speculations into these words, To morrow one of the greatest Monarches of Christendom is to be slain And the very next day the mortal stab was given by Ravaillac: Add hereunto a memorable presaging Dream that the Queen mother had the night before the murder was committed, for after the triumphs of her Coronation, she dreamt that the diamonds and jewels that were in her Crown were all turned to perl, which have been always held the emblems of Tears.  
That Ravaillac was observed to have been a melancholy odd humorist a great while, one who had at times some fits and flashes of Illuminations as his friends gave out afterwards; Now, such is the strength of Imagination and force of Fancy, that having let in false Idoeas into the brain, and being fomented by some fatuous Zeal, it hurls a man headlong oftentimes upon desperate attempts and undertake, of inevitable danger, making him misprise his own life, so that he may be master of another's, specially when the enterprise is heated with hope of Merit, Revenge, and Fame.  
Thus fell one of the compleatest Kings under which the Flower de luces ever flourished, a spriteful and well-tempered Prince, excellently versed in the study and knowledge of men, always well disposed, pleasant and witty, Close in his Counsels, and constant in his purposes, Parsimonious, yet openhanded to Cadetts or younger brothers, whom he loved to see about Him rather than Elder brothers, who were already advanced by Nature; And lastly, though this be but a quarter Character of Him, He was a great discerner of worth and virtue, a brave quality, and one of the prime Requisites in a King; For subjects are industrious or dissolute, They have aspiring thoughts to virtue, and get good Parts according as their Prince hath judgement to distinguish and value their worth, and so to employ and advance them.  
The memory of this King is yet as fresh in France, as if he had been taken away but yesterday, and his death was universally resented, as much as admired, both at home and abroad.  
But though the Sun was thus suddenly set in a dark ruddy cloud in the French firmament, yet no night ensued, for another did presently rise up, shot his rays through every corner of that part of the hemisphere, viz. Lewis the Thirteenth, etc.  
The report of that monstrous Parricide committed on the Person of so glorious a King did penetrate all hearts, and made a strange kind of consternation to seize upon the minds of men. Though it was no new thing in France to have their King torn away from them so, for it was fresh in the memory of many thousands, how two and twenty years before Henry the third his immediate Predecessor was dispatched away in that manner, but the Assassin presently found his tomb in the very place where he did perpetrate the Fact, being immediately hacked to pieces.  
The Court of Parliament presently met that afternoon, and declared Dame Maria de Medice Queen Regent of all France, which was the next day confirmed by the young King her Son sitting Himself on the bed of Royal Justice; This was done without any opposition or scruple at all, for King Henry had designed her for Queen Regent before during his absence in the wars, and the reverence that all had to the judgement of so wise and well beloved a King advantaged the work, with a  conjuncture of other circumstances; For both the Princes of the blood were then absent, The Count of Soillons was far up in the Country, where he had retired not without some discontentment; The Prince of Conde was then in Italy. There were also two great Armies in motion, one under the Marshal Lesdigueres in Dauphine, The other under the command of the Duke of Nevers in Champanis ready to suppress any insurrection.  
The Queen Mother being thus established in her Regency put three things to present consultation.  
1. The security of the Kingdom,  
2. A satisfaction to Justice for the Murder of the King.  
3. His Obsequies, or rites of Funeral.  
Concerning the first and last, it makes nothing for our present purpose, but touching the second which was the expiation of the King's blood, and satisfaction to and how Ravaillac should be punished much pains was taken: At his first examination, they would have persuaded him that the King was not dead but like to recover, whereat he smiled, saying, that he knew well enough the Work was done, for 'twas not he but the hand of Heaven that did it: Being thereupon asked, how he durst imbrue his hands in the blood of Gods Anointed, the most Christian King, and his Sovereign Natural Prince? at the word most Christian, he smiled again in a king of slighting manner; Being searched, there was found about him a pair of beads, and a heart made of Cotten with a piece of wood in it, which he was made to believe was a part of that very Cross whereon Christ suffered: All means imaginable were assayed to make him discover if he had had any Instigators or complices in this Infernal plot, but he still answered positively and constantly he had had none at all, saying, that he durst never speak of it to any, no not to his Confessor for fear of discovery; for so he might have been punished for the Will only, without the Decd; yet a Jesuit and a Cordelier Friar who were his Ghostly Fathers, were strictly examined, but nothing could be had out of them; Thereupon there arose a nice question among the Divines, viz. Whether the Priest was bound to reveal the Confesions of his Penitent? But 'twas only propounded, and so left only problematical and undecided for that time.  
Now, Every one did screw up his invention for the devising some exquisite lasting torment for Ravaillac; among others the Butchers of Paris who are habituated to blood, proposed a way to flay him alive, and the torture of excovation should last for three days; Others gave the draught of an Instrument in form of an Obelisk where he might be pressd, and the torment should continue a long time, and life continue; Others propounded a way to have his body quite cut off from the hips downwards, and his bowels to be presently clapped on a hot iron plank, which should preserve the other half of the body, and the noble parts in pangs of agony a long while.  
But the Court of Justice though it fit to wave all these ways, and to pronounce this Arrest or Sentence of condemnation against him, viz. That Francis Ravaillack Practitioner (or Pleader) in the Town of Angoulesme, a Criminal process being form against him, and after due Examination, Information, Interrogations, Confession, Denegation, Confrontation of witnesses, at the instances of the King's Attorney General, for that most wicked, most abominable, and most detestable Parricide, committed on the person of the late King Henry the fourth of most good and laudable memory. For reparation of which damnable murder the Court hath declared, and doth doth declare, that the said Francis Ravaillac shall be carried in a tombrell naked in his shirt, with a flaming torch of two pound weight in his hand, before the principal gate of the great Church in Paris there to make honourable amends, and thence to be carried to the Greve or common place of execution, where holding the knife in his hand wherewith he perpetrated that most accur said Parricide, his hand shall be first pierced with the said knife, and then burnt up with fire of sulf●r upon the open stage; That he shall have the Brodequins or buskins filled with scalding oil applied unto his legs; That he shall be pincerd in the paps, thighs, and braun or calf of the legs, that holes shall be made up and down his body, wherein boiling lead, burning rozin, and wax mettled with sulphur shall be poured; That his body afterwards shall be drawn & dismembered by four horses; That his members shall bethens burnt and reduced to cinders, and the ashes thrown into the amir an utter extinction of him in this world: That the House wherein he was born in Angoulesme shall be razed and made even with the ground, provided that he who possesseth it shall be indemnified, and that none shall ever presume to build upon that piece of earth again. That all his goods stable or movable shall be confiscated to the King; That within fifteen days after the publication of this sentence, his Father and Mother shall quit the Kingdom of France never to return; That his Brothers, Sisters, Uncles, and others of his Kindred shall never for the future bear the name of Ravaillac under pain of being hanged and strangled, but change it to some other Surname.  
This dismal sentence was executed to the very height of torture, and extended to the utmost length of time, possibility of sense, and possibility of natural strength, for there were ways invented, and such Cordials given that kept him from syncopps, and fits of swooning; Before, at the beginning, and in the midst of all his torments, there could be no other confession extorred from him, though he was sifted with all the sagacity and artifice that could be, but that the sole motives which hurled him on so desperate an attempt were certain Revelations that he said he had had, which afterwards he was contented to call Temptations; And that he thought he should do a work acceptable to God Almighty to take away a King who was a Favourer of Heretics, and who went about with the Army he had raised to perturb the peace of the Catholic Church, and of the Holy Father the Pope.  
The people in general did love the deceased King so passionately, that nothing but Imprecations, Curses, and all sorts of Maledictions could be heard echoing from them, so that none did pity him, or were heard to pray with him or for him all the while he was upon the scatfold, and in the midst of his torments, nay scarce any were found that wished the salvation of his soul. And touching his Body after it was torn by horses, happy was he that could get any piece of it to cast intoa fire, insomuch that it might be said he was burnt in more than twenty places up and down the City and Suburbs in several great fires; So Nemesis had her glut, for that infernal Assassin may be said not only to be executed but extinguished, or rather annihilated and reduced to a nonentity, only he hath a Being in story for an everlasting villain, as he who burned the Temple of Diana.  
Thus far goes our Noble Historian, whereby it appears, that the English Clime is far more mild in point of Justice then France, for though the Murder here was altogether of as transcendent a nature, and more horrid than the French, considering all circumstances, and complication of Treasons, it being a thing unexampled since the world began, that a King should be so arraigned before his own Subjects as a Criminal; nor did their Malice terminate with his life, but after his death they hired scurrilous Pamphleteers to bespatter him, and withal caused his statutes to be battered, his pictures burned, and his Arms taken down in Churches; I say, though the English Murderers were far more abominable, yet their punishment was much more easy and short.  
In conclusion, observable it is, that among those varieties of punishments which were insticted upon Ravaillac, there were two that followed him after death; For an Edict or Act of Parliament passed, that the House he was born in should be razed to the ground, and not a stone left on a stone, with a kind of Anathema that none should ever build or d●●ll there again, Another Act passed that all his Kindred should take another Surname, and call themselves no more Ravaillac, under pain of being hanged and strangled.  
Which two particulars are humbly recommended to the Great Council of England, viz. the two Houses of Parliament, upon their Re-accesse.  
JAMES PARRY.  
FINIS.