Mag. COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF FRANCE. [Continued.] THE war being thus ended, the king fuffered his fon Lewis to perform his vow, in marching with a body of troops against the Albigeois, who by this time were almoft entirely reduced; fo that he rather infpired with jealousy Simon de Montfort, who commanded the croffes, than did them any real fervice. While he was thus employed, a new occafion offered for gratifying his own and his father's ambition; the barons in England had taken up arms against king John, and had declared him as a tyrant fallen from his regal dignity; but as he had a good army and fleet at his devotion, they found it not fo eafy to reduce him to the ftate of a private man as they expected, and therefore they judged it expedient to fet up another king; with which view they invited prince Lewis, on the report, as they faid, of his virtues, to come and accept 1215. hiftorians infift, or rather The French dream, of a legal right, derived from his wife, who was the grand-daughter of Henry the fecond; forgetting that, befides king John and his family, the princefs Eleanor, fifter to Arthur, and daughter to Geoffrey, duke of Bretagne, was living. But election was a fufficient right for this purpose; and therefore Lewis, in the flower of his age, and full of heat, readily accepted the offer. How to furnish him with forces for this purpose was a point not eafy to be 1216. folved, even by king Philip. It was likely to revive the jealoufy of his nobility, it was a direat breach of the truce, and it was a ftep that could not fail of provoNovember 1764. of the crown. king the pope. Philip, therefore, dient; he difclaimed having any thing had recourfe to a very trange expe meddle with the affairs of England, to do with his fon, he forbid him to but furnished him at the fame time with a good army and a numerous fleer. This addrefs was altogether in fe&tual; for his nobility were not lated, and the pope threatened an deceived, the truce was plainly viointerdict. However, Lewis went to England, landed in Kent, took Rochefter and other places, proceeded as king; but he committed a great to London, and was received there error in leaving Dover Cafle behind him, which was very ill provided, and which king John immediately revi&ualled, augmented the garrifon, and repaired and enlarged the fortifications. His father Philip having admonished him of his error, Lewis befieged the place, but alfo with the fame want of fuccefs. without effect, as he did Windfor While his forces were thus employed, John marched through the kingdom with his army, and took a feging their lands, and demolifaing vere revenge of his enemies, ravatheir caflles, till furprifed by a fudden death. In the mean time the pope had excommunicated both Lewis and Philip, and had commanded the bishops of France to put the kingdom under an interdict; which, tho' they refufed to do, upon the king's declaring he took no part in this war, yet he was fo much afraid of aflifting his fon, that Lewis was conftrained to make a truce with that he might have time to pafs over the young king Henry the third, 4 F into France, in order to obtain fuccours, without which he faw it was impofiible to fupport his daily declining party. It may be remarked, that at this time a minority proved of fingular advantage to England. The terror of the papal power was at this time fo great, that king Philip refused to fee his fon, at leath publickly, while he remained in France, and fo many precautions were used in furnithing him with fupplies, that he received no great benefit from this voyage; while in England the defection became greater and greater, occafioned chiefly by a report, that the viscount of Melun had declared upon his deathbed, that Lewis looked upon the barons as traitors, and refolved, as foon as it was in his power, to rid himfelf of them at any rate. At his return Lewis attacked Dover again with the fame ill fortune; and tho' his army afterwards reduced the city of Lincoln, yet, while they were engaged in the fiege of the caftle, they were furprifed and defeated by the eari of Pembroke, who, in this action, took no less than fifty-two perfons of diftinction prifoners; which fo much enfeebled the party of Lewis, that, in order to preferve the city of London, he was forced to fhut himfelf up there with all his forces. In this diftrefs he redoubled his applications to his father for relief, which Philip, not daring to affift him in any other way, recommended to the care of his confort Blanch, who very speedily raised a body of troops under the command of Robert de Courtenai, and embarked them on board a strong squadron commanded by Euftace le Meine. But the English fleet at tacked them at the mouth of the river of Thames, and, having taken the admiral, caused his head to be ftruck off, because he had been formerly in the English fervice; which fo intimidated the reft, that, crouding all the fail they could, they returned into the French harbour. This left Lewis no other means of faving himself than by a treaty, which he made in perfon with the young king Henry, the legate, and the earl of Pembroke: the terms were, that Lewis and the lords with him fhould take an oath to ftand to the judgment of the church; to return quietly into France; to use their endeavours to procure the reftitution of Normandy, and the reft of the countries poffeffed by king Philip; and, in cafe they should not fucceed, to restore them whenever Lewis became king. On the other hand, the barons were restored to all their liberties and privileges, and the prifoners taken in the battle of Lincoln, and at the rout of the French fleet, were to be fet free. The legate, upon the execution of this treaty, abfolved prince Lewis ; who thereupon returned to France, where he was again absolved by the pope's legate with much ceremony. At the expiration of the five years truce, which had been concluded with king John, and which Philip affected to maintain, he sent his fon Lewis to befiege Rochelle, which he reduced; but, upon the coming over of the earls of Kent and Salisbury, the truce was again renewed for four years more, and the city of Rochelle reftored. By this time, the 1219. cruelty of the croffes, under the command of Simon de Montfort, had fo wore out the patience of the people in the fouth of France, that they had restored the old count of Thouloufe, and Simon, befieging him in that city, was killed before it ; it; upon which pope Honorius the were deftroyed, and the great check The principal motive to the recalling prince Lewis was to have him prefent at a great council of the nobility and prelates, which was to be held at Paris, to confider of the offer made by Amauri de Montfort, the eldest fon of Simon; who, furmifing that Lewis had carried on the war against the Albigeois fo coldly because the crown had no immediate intereft in it, propofed, out of his zeal against the heretics, to refign to the crown his rights to the duchy of Narbonne, the county of Thoulouse, and all the lands that had been fo liberally bestowed upon his father by pope Innocent the third in the council of Lateran. The king alfo returning out of his new conqueft for the fame purpose, fell ill of a fever at Mante, where he died, on the fourteenth of July, in the fortyfourth year of his reign, and the fifty-ninth of his age. He is allowed to have been the greatest monarch that reigned in France from the time of Charlemagne, and that very defervedly, in whatever light he is confidered. As a politician, he 1223. did more towards the reftoring the authority of the crown than all his predeceffors, and indeed as much as could be expected; for at the time of his demife the balance between the crown and its vaffals This famous monarch was of a middle ftature, well proportioned, had regular features; but the miffortune to have two fpecks on one of his eyes. He was affable, and eafy in his manners, had the general good of his fubjects at heart, and from a confcioufnefs of this, acted fometimes a little bluntly towards the nobility and the peers. He loved decency in every thing, but was an enemy to gaudinefs and ufelefs expence, as appears by his prohibiting the ufe of fcarlet and rich furs du4 F 2 ring ring the time of the croifade. His firft queen was Ifabel, daughter of Baldwin the Brave count of Hainault, whom he efpoufed the 28th of April 1180. Three years after, he banished her to Senlis for having fpoke to him a little too warmly in behalf of the cardinal of Rheims. She died at Paris, March 15th 1190, in the 21st year of her age, in child-bed of two twins, leaving behind her only one fon Lewis, who fucceeded his father. He efpoufed at Amiens, Aug. 12th 1193, Ifemburge, or Ingelburge, fifter to Canute the fixth, king of Denmark, whom he repudiated, and procured a divorce, as we have fhewn in the text, under pretence of confanguinity. He had afterwards fome thoughts of efpoufing Joan queen dowager of Sicily, and in June 1196 married Agnes, the daughter of Bertold the fourth, duke of Merania, whom many hiftorians call Mary. She died at Poifi, in 1201, of grief, at his being obliged by the pope to take back his former queen. By her he had Philip Hurfpel, that is, the Rude, created by his father count of Clermont in Beauvoifis, but who, in right of his wife Matilda, or Maud, became count of Dammartin and Bologne, and gave great disturbance to the queen regent in the minority of St. Lewis. He had also by the fame princefs a daughter Mary, promifed in marriage to Alexander prince of Scotland, afterwards to Arthur count of Bretagne, but married neither. In 1206 the efpoufed Philip count of Namur, and, after his decease, Henry duke of Brabant. Thefe children were legitimated by the pope, and Philip had fo good an opinion of his own birth, that he secretly aimed at the crown. But notwithftanding the king, to prevent an interdi&t, took back queen Ingelburge, and was feemingly reconciled, yet he very foon after fent her to Eftampes, where she remained 1 2 years, and then, when it was leaft expected, he fent for her to Paris, lived with her the remaining ten years of his life in great tranquillity, and, befides her jointure, left her, by will, ten thoufand livres, as a mark of his af fection. She died at Corbeil, in 1236, in the 60th year of her age, and was buried in the priory of St. John, at the place before-mentioned, of her own foundation; but the king her husband was interred at St. Denis. It is neceffary to obferve, that, tho' no notice is taken of it by moft hiftorians, yet he had certainly a baftard fon, whofe name was Peter Carlot, to whom William la Breton dedicated his poem, and, being his preceptor, he wrote alfo a poem in his honour, ftiled Carlotes. This young prince became afterwards treafurer of Tours, and bifhop of Nojon, where he died in 1249. [To be continued.] T Remarkable ANECDOTE of LUTHER. WO days before this great man died he wrote the following remarkable words in his own hand: ft. Nobody can underftand Virgil's Bucolics, unless he has been a fhepherd five years. 2d. No man is capable of understanding the Georgics thoroughly, except he has followed the bufinefs of a husbandman the space of five years. 38. There There is no poffibility of understanding Cicero's epiftles, I fay and main tain it, unless he has been in the administration of fome republic for twenty years. 4. Let no man there. fore imagine he has acquired a fufficient relish for the reading of the Holy Scriptures, fo as to think he underftands them, except he has governed the church a hundred years, in conjunction with fuch prophets as Elias, Elijah, St. John Baptift, Chrift, and his apofiles, To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, The humorous ftory of St. Thomas à Becket's Breeches, inferted in your Magazine for October laft, reminded me of a remarkable impofition almoft of a fimilar nature, which was carried on for fome time at Milan without detection; but being at last discovered, the pretended mystery was explained to the people, and its authors brought to condign punishment, As the ftory may probably be unknown to most of your readers, as it is well authenticated, and not unentertaining, I flatter myself you will have no objection to giving it a place in your Magazine. I am, &c. G. H. four centuries ago the retirement of the gate was fhut, and the devotions fometimes continued many hours. At first the times had been irregular, and often the door was faftened at mid-day; but the faint being too much reverenced, people used to crowd at a distance about the por tal to have the benefit of her pray. ers; and fhe had many folicitations, from thofe of pious difpofitions, for leave to join her in them. The love of doing good, and the hate of oftentation, occafioned her at laft to make midnight the only time for her great acts of devotion, and invite a few of thofe who folicited it, to the honour of joining in them. The door was ufually kept faft for two or three hours, and the people who were honoured with her inftructions were then let out, not in a body, but one after another, as each was to receive her laft inftructions at their difmiffion. |