A generall martyrologie containing a collection of all the greatest persecutions which have befallen the church of Christ from the creation to our present times, both in England and other nations : whereunto are added two and twenty lives of English modern divines ... : as also the life of the heroical Admiral of France slain in the partisan massacre and of Joane Queen of Navar poisoned a little before / by Sa. Clarke.

The Martyrdom of William of Nassaw, Prince of Orange.

THe Estates of the United Provinces, having declared the King of Spaine to be fallen from the Government of of those Countries, they chose William of Nassaw, Prince of Orange, to be their Captain General, whereupon he was proscribed by the King of Spain, and a great summe of mony promised to him that should slay him; Not long after a desperate villain called Joanville was suborned to do the feat; for which end he was directed to charge his Pistol with two bullets, and to shoot him behind in the head; the day appointed for this execu∣tion was March 18. 1582. upon which day the Prince was to be at a great feast at the Duke of Anjous Court; but the presse being great there, Joanville chose rather to do it at the Prince of Oranges own house as he was at dinner; the Villain being thus desperately resolved, a Ja∣cobin Friar came to confess him, fortifying him in his resolution with many sweet words, perswading him that he should go invisible, for which end he gave him some characters in paper, and little Frogs bones, and other conjurations.

Being thus assured, he drunk a cup or two of Malmsey, and so ac∣comxanied with his Ghostly father, he went to the Princes Court; at the stair-foot the Friar gave him his blessing, encouraged him, and so left him; The Prince of Orange was set at dinner, with the Earles of Laval, Hohenlo, and many other Noblemen; Joanville came into the dining-room, attired like a Frenchman, so that he was taken for a ser∣vant

to some of those French Noblemen; He thrust forward twice or thrice to come behind the Prince to shoot him in the head, as he was directed, but was still repulsed by the Princes Gentlemen that stood about him; Dinner being done, the Prince was going to his retiring chamber, whereupon this Villain gat before a window in the Hall, close by the door of that room into which the Prince was to go; As the Prince passed towards it, he was shewing the Earle of Laval the cruelties that the Spaniards had exercised in the Low-Countries, which were wrought in the hangings; and having his face turned, this mur∣therer discharged his Pistol at him; but the Prince, as God would have it, turning at the same instant, the bullet entred in at his throat under the right chap, being so near that the fire entred with the bullet into the wound, burning his Ruffe and Beard; it brake out one of his teeth, pierced the jugular vein, but hurt not his toungue, and so came out at his left cheek hard by his nose; the blow being given, one with an Halberd could not contain himself, but thrust the Villain through, and slew him.

The Chirurgions being sent for, found that the fire which entred the wound, had cauterized the jugular vein, and had done him much good, so that the wound was not mortal. The Friar was afterwards apprehended and executed.

Anno 1584. The Spaniards thinking they had no greater enemy in the world than the Prince of Orange, and that if he were dead they should quickly attain their desires in the Netherlands; they suborned one Baltazar Gerard, an high Burguignon, to murther him, who bought a good paire of Pistols, and on the tenth of July watched when the Prince should go down into the Hall to dinner at Delpht in Holland, and as he passed by, he demanded a Pasport of him; the Princesse ob∣serving that he spake with an hollow and unsetled voice, she asked her husband who he was? saying that she did not like his countenance; the Prince answered that he demanded a Pasport, which he should pre∣sently have: After dinner the Prince going out of the Hall, the mur∣therer stood behind a Pillar in the Gallery, and as the Prince passed by, suddenly shot him from the left side to the right, through the stomack and the vital parts, who said no more, but O my God, take pity of my soul, I am sore wounded; my God, take pity of my soul and of this poor people; and presently after he gave up the Ghost.

Collected out of Sleidens Commentaries, and the History of the Nether∣lands, &c.

Notes

• The Prince proscribed.
• Joanville sub∣orned to kill him.
• Popish subtil∣ty.
• A special Pro∣vidence.
• Beltazar Ge∣rard suborned to kill him.
• The Prince his death.