EXAMPLE.

Blanch of Bourbon, Queen of Castile.

WHoever shall read the History of Blanch of Bourbo•, Queen of Castile, will no longer believe that Vertue is a Charm against Disasters, nor that the Graces are able to inchant Fortune. This Princesse who had Whitenesse and Beauty even in her Name, was of those Li••cs, which the Holy Scripture represents unto us besieged with Thorns. She was of those Pearls which were drowned in Bitter∣nesse, and abandoned to Tempests. All her dayes were serene, and all hours sweet and quiet under the Climate of France: and by a Destiny contrary to that of Roses, which have prickles onely upon their stalks, and must be first gathered to be Honoured; she was Happy and Ho∣noured whilst she was a Maid, and lived in the House of John Duke of Bourbon her Father. The Tempest, Bitterness, and Tragical Revolu∣tion of her Life, began from the very Moment of her Marriage with Peter the Cruel, King of Castile. Certainly also the Allyance was too un∣equal, and the union too ill made between Innocency and Cruelty, be∣tween a most pure Grace and a Devil composed of Blood and Durt.

Before Blanch went into Spain, the Prince had no longer any Heart to give her; Mary of Padilla was become Mistresse of it: and whether it were by Conquest or Usurpation, she reigned there so absolutely, and with so great a Command, as all the Authority of the Queen her Mo∣ther, and all the Favour of Albuquerque her principal Counseller, were needful to dispose him to the Consummation of the Marriage. The Wedding was not celebrated; it was tumultuary precipitated, and done in silence without the least Shew or Pomp. It was rather a mourn∣ful Act then a Feast of Joy; and if this forced Prince brought to it no∣thing but discontent and aversion; the unfortunate Princesse assisted there with the Spirit of a Mourner, and the Countenance of a Victime designed to Death. They had not been two dayes together, but Peter resolved to leave her. He could not live content far off from his Heart, and his Heart was in the Hands of his Mistresse, who laid a charge against him for marrying Blanch, and threatned him as a Rebel Subject and a fugitive Slave.

The Queen his Mother, and his Aunt Elenor being advertised of his Designe, replaced before his Eyes the wrath of an offended God, the ill opinion of his scandalized People, and the incensed Arms of France. He loosneth himself from all these Chains, he overcomes all these Obstacles, and rides post where his Love or his wicked Devil called him. After some Moneths dedicated to them both, he returns to his Wife, drawn by the earnest Intreaties of his Mother, by the good Offi∣ces of Albuquerque, by the Counsels and Sollicitations of his Grande••. But he returned to forsake her two dayes after, and to give her by a se∣cond Divorce, a second Wound more injurious and sensible then the Page  62 former. The noise of it was great, and the History also saith, that this so violent aversion was wrought on him by a Charm; and that a Jewish Magitian corrupted by Mary of Padilla's Brothers, fastned this Charm to a 〈◊〉 beset with rich Stones, which Blanch had presented to the King. But 〈◊〉, if a certain Person said, that Love was a Sophister, and a Mountebank, I may well say, that it was a powerful Sorcerer, and a great Incaanter: It knew how to pervert and corrupt •ounder Heads, and better tempered Hearts then that of this Prince, without either Spels or Characters: And whatever Men say of the power of Magick, It knows no Hearbs more Efficacious, nor can compound any D••nk more to be feared, then the depraved Habits of a Soul aban∣doned by God, and delivered up to a reprobate Sense.

Whatever it be, this Cruel King not only left his Wife a second time never to see her more: but even Banished her to a little Place, where he converted her Chamber into a Prison, and assigned her as many Goa∣lets and Spi•s as Guards. And his Cruelty passed so far, as he was deli∣berating whether he should appoint Commissio•ers, to cause her to be put to Death Juridically, and according to the forms of Law.

This barbarous and unjust Treatment of the Fairest and most Vertu∣ous Princess of her Age, was a Scandal to all Europe. The Pope sent a Legat armed with Excommunications and Anathema's, to set at Liberty oppressed Innocence, and to punish the Incorrigible and Scandalous King. The Princes of Castile and Aragon made a League with the Inha∣bitants of 〈◊〉, Cordona, and other principal Cities, and joyned in com∣mon their Offices and Arms. France offended with the Calamity of a Princesse of the Blood, hastned to side with them. Heaven it self took in hand this Cause: And the King being a hunting, a Spirit appeared to him in the shape of a hideous and frightful Shepherd which threat∣ned him with Divine Vengeance, if he recalled not his Wife. All this did not mollifie the obdurate heart of this Prince: On the contrary being perswaded that the Life of Blanch was the Fatal Fire-brand which nourished all these Fires, and that they would be all extinguished with her. He caused her to be impoisoned at Medina in Andalo•za: where by a Couragious and Magnanimous Piety, she knew so well how to joyn Devotion to Patience and Incense to Mirrhe, as she sanctified her Prison, and made it a House of Sacrifice and Prayer.

I know not whether any Princess was more perfect then this: but in all appearance, there was never any one lesse happy; she was Espoused in Mourning, she was a Widow during Marriage: and the Wedding day, which is 〈◊〉 for all others, and makes Flowers to grow even up∣on the Chains of Slaves, darkned her Diadem, obscured her Purple, and •ielded her nothing but Smoak and •horns. But God would have her accomplished and pure, and it was his good pleasure, that Adversity and Constancy should give her the last Hand, and that Princesses should learn by this Example, that Martyrs may be made as well between Balli∣sters, and under a Cloth of State, as upon Scaffolds and Amphitheaters.