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LEwis the 13. at his age of eight yeares, seven Moneths, and seventeene dayes, succeeded his Father Henry the Great, and the fif∣teenth of May, Anno Domini 1610. he
sate personally in the Court of Parlia∣ment, then sitting at the Augustines, where, in the presence of the Queene his mother, who sate by him of the one side, foure Cardinalls, foure Ecclesiasti∣call Peeres of France, some Princes of the Blood, and other Princes, who met in that assembly; also of the Con∣stable, with many Dukes and secular Peeres, of the Marshalls of France, and Officers of the Crowne, of Governours of Provinces, of Presidents and Coun∣sellors of the Parliament, he by the Mouth of the Lord Sillery his Chan∣cellour declared his Mother to be Re∣gent in France, that shee might have the tuition of his person, and the admini∣stration of the affaires of his Kingdome, during his minority, with all authority and power, according to the charge of that Court given the day before.
The same Moneth the criminall in∣dictment was preferred against the most inhumane Parricide, Francis Ra∣vaillac,
and on the 23. of May, he was de∣clared guilty, and justly attainted, and convicted of the crime of Laesae Maje∣statis in the highest degree, in the great Court and Chamber of Turnella in Paris, before all the Assemblies, Presi∣dents, Counsellours, and Commissio∣ners, at the request of Du Viquit, Attur∣ney Generall to the King, whose place and authority was there then to inquire against this Francis Ravaillac, for the murther of his late Soveraigne Henry the fourth, King of France and Navarre: Whereupon this Ravaillac with a sad and death-like countenance, holding up his guilty hand before this great as∣sembly, presently confessed guilty; and that he became this his Countries shame, onely by the instigation of the Divell; and not any other accomplices and confederates would he reveale, but in a Satanicall manner vowed himselfe to secresie; and being found guilty, he was with a strong guard of armed men
conveyed to prison, which otherwise by the violence and rage of the com∣mon people, had beene torne in pee∣ces, such was their love they owed to their late King: for which Fact he was condemned to pay his forfeit before the great gate of our Lady Church in Paris, and thence to be conveyed to the place of execution; and in the meane time, to make him confesse, he was to be pin∣ched with hot Pincers upon his breasts, armes, buttocks, thighes, and the Calves of his legges; his right hand to be burnt off with fire of brimstone, with an or∣der, that in those places where hee was so pinced, melted Lead should be pow∣red, boyling Oyle, Pitch, Rozen, Waxe, and Brimstone, melted altogether. This being done, that his body should be torne in pieces, and dismembred by foure horses, and that his Limbes should be burnt and consumed to ashes, and cast into the winde; all his goods to be confiscate to the King: that the house
wherein he was borne, should be demo∣lished, and never any Edefice upon that ground to be built: that within fifteene dayes after the publication of this sen∣tence in the towne of Angolesme, his Father and Mother should depart the Realme, and never returne againe, upon paine of being hanged, without any o∣ther proceedings: It was also forbid∣den in the aforesaid High Court, that his brothers, sisters uncles, and all others that beare the name of Ravaillac, to whom it was enjoyned to change it into another name, upon the same penalty: All which was published and put in exe∣cution the same day, by the order of the whole assembly in the aforesaid Court in Paris: but before I conclude, I will speake againe of the manner of his death; because in that place I will not omit some things more worthy of note.
Afterwards it was provided for the Funeralls and obsequies of the dead
King, and then the body of the late Henry the third was removed from the Towne of Compeigne to be interred at St. Denis; which was performed, and the heart of this Henry the Great, at the same time was carryed to the Jesuites at la Flech.
The Sorbone renewed the Decree of the Councell of Constance against Pa∣racides of Kings, and by the Court of Parliament upon the Iuine, it condem∣ned a Book of Iohn Mariana, one of the Society, a Spaniard intituled De Rege & Regis institutione, and caused it to be burnt by the Executioner before our La∣dies Church.
The Martiall de la Chastra, being sent with an Army of twelve thousand foot, and two thousand Horse to Tulliers, which he took the second of Septem∣ber.
Divers Embassadors came to Paris to the King, to bemoane and condole with him the death of his father: and
King Iames of England sent unto him the Order of the Garter, which he re∣ceived the foureteenth of Septem∣ber.
The 17. of October the King was con∣secrated at Rheimes, and the next day he received the Order of the Holy Ghost; and he gave the Order to the Prince of Conde, and returned to Paris, where he was magnificently entertai∣ned.
The sixe and twentieth of November it was proceeded and decreed in the Court of Parliament against a Booke of Cardinall Bellarmine, touching the Popes authority In Temporalibus, which was forbidden to be printed, to be sold, or kept, upon paine of High Treason.
The seventeenth day of November, Anno Domini 1611. the Duke of Orleans, brother to the King, deceased at St. Germans en Lay, and his body was conveyd to St. Denis in France.
The Lord of Vatan made a kinde of a Rebellion in Berry, whereupon his Castle was taken, and he carryed to Pa∣ris, where he was beheaded the se∣cond, of January, Anno Domini 1612.
This yeare were solemnized the mar∣riages of the King with the Lady Anne Infanta of Spaine, and of the Kings Sister, with the Prince of Spaine.
The yeare 1614 the Prince of Conde retired himselfe to Paris, and the Mar∣quesse D' Ancre was made Marshall of France.
The Statue of Brasse of Henry the Great, was by the great Duke of Tus∣cany sent to Paris, and placed with the Horse of Brasse, upon the midst of the New Bridge; And about that time the Prince of Conty dyed.
The Prince distasted with the Kings espousalls with the Queene at Burgos, made a hurly burly in the Countrey,
but the Espousalls being ended, the Duke of Guise with a strong Army con∣ducted her to Fontarable, where shee was received by the Spaniards, and an exchange being made, the Queene was by the said Duke conveyed to Bourde∣aux, where shee was most magnificently entertained by the King, where hee ex∣pected her, and the Nuptials were cele∣brated on St. Katharines day.
The yeare 1616. such was the rigour of cold weather in January, that the Ri∣vers were frozen, and the yee was the cause of the fall of St. Michaels at Paris.
The 16. of August, the taking of Pe∣ronne was a cause of new commotions, and the first of September was apprehen∣ded at the Louure, and after kept under a strong guard in the Bastile.
Many of the Lords retired from the Court, as the Duke of Vendosme, of Ne∣vers, of Guise, of Mayenne, and Bovillon, with other Lords, whereof some retur∣ned againe, the others not: which was
a cause that the King in Parliament de∣clared the causes wherefore he kept the Prince his brother in hold.
In the beginning of the yeare 1617. he made a Declaration against the Duke of Nevers in Parliament, the 17. of Ja∣nuary, also in February against the Dukes of Vendosme, Mayenne, Bouillon, the Marquesse of Caevure, and the President le Jay. Also another Declaration was made in March for the re-union to his Domaines, and a Confiscation of the goods of the said Nobility upon the 16. of the said Moneth.
This King succeeded after the Tragi∣call death of his Father, when great troubles were like to follow; but all those clouds were blowne away, and this young Prince shined forth like the Sun in a cleare skie. First of all hee went to the Parliament, and made a Declara∣tion that his Mother should be Queene Regent during his minority. After∣ward the Jesuites received his Fathers
heart, with great Ceremony, being re∣ceived into La Flech. Here the Arraign∣ment and cruell Execution of the Mur∣therer Ravilliac deserves to be drawne forth in blacke colours. Imagine that Ravilliac was first arraign'd after he had beene put to the Rack, then condem∣ned, afterward hee was brought out of the prison in his shirt, with a Torch of two pound weight lighted in one hand, and the knife wherewith he had murde∣red the King, chained to the other: then he was set upright in a Dung-cart, now hee is doing pennance at our Ladies Church; now imagine the raging people are ready to teare him in peeces, but the Officers restraine them; the Murderer came to the Scaffold, he crosses himselfe in signe that he dyed a Papist; hee was bound to a St. Andrews Crosse, then his fatall hand with the knife chained to it, smoaks in a Furnace of fire and brim∣stone; it is consum'd, yet hee will not confesse any thing, but roare and cry like
to a Soule in hell, but yet unpitied: and then his flesh was pulld off with hot Pin∣cers, and burnt, then scalding Oyle, Ro∣zen, pitch, and brimstone, melted toge∣ther, were powr'd into his wounds, and on his navell a roundell of Clay was set, into the which they powred molten Lead, and then he roared, but confessed nothing. At last, to conclude this Tra∣gedy, his body was torne in pieces with foure strong Horses, which could not plucke them asunder, being so firmely knit together, untill the flesh under his armes and thighes was cut. In this man∣ner was this Paricide tormented and ex∣ecuted, being the horrid picture of a Traytor, suffering extreame tortures, yet misery nor death could not enforce from him any confession. And surely if Hells tortures might be felt on earth, it was approved in this mans punishment, yet he would reveale nothing, but that he did it by the instigation of the Devil, and his maine reason was, because the
King tollerated two Religions in his Kingdome. Oh small occasion, that for this cause one servile slave should thu quench the great light of France, whose brightnesse glistred thorow Europe: One thing this Villaine confessed, that of all the severall torments that were inven∣ted and laid upon him, none was more terrible to him, than his losse of sleepe for sixe dayes and nights together, for there were appointed severall offi∣cers by turnes to keepe him waking, by thrusting red-hot bodkins into his breasts and sides; so that if he did but of∣fer to winke or give a nod, then present∣ly they awaked him with those Irons. He was torne in peeces as I said before, and his bones burnt, the ashes whereof were scattered in the winde, as being thought unworthy of the earths buriall. This Ravaillac was borne at Angolesme, and by profession a Lawyer, and was perswaded as it is thought, by the Jesu∣ites to perpetrate this bloody act, by
murdering this Kings Father, Henry the fourth, the hope of Learning, and the glory of Armes. Afterward the Duke of Fener, Embassadour from Spaine, came to Paris, and being brought into the Kings presence, he said that he came from the King his Master to visite his Majesty. This young Prince answered, I thanke the King my brother for his good will, I will remember him and you also: Seeing he desires it, he may ex∣pect from me all friendship and good in∣telligence, such as hee had with the de∣ceased King my Father. Afterward the Lord Wotton, Embassadour from Eng∣land, came to Paris, and then Embassa∣dours for confirmation of mutuall league being sent into Spaine, England, and to Rome, the King was at Rheims with solemne pompe and great state crowned.