dition that Lewis should resign all that part of Naples unto which he had right, and that Ferdinand should pay to Lewis 700,000 ducats.

In conclusion, the Spaniards got the start; for the French king delivered those few places which they had held in Naples, and withal resigned his right to the rest; but as for the money promised, the same was never paid unto this day.

What use Ferdinand of Arragon made by giving his daughter in marriage to Henry VIII. of England, the conquest of Navarre hath told us.

For a fifth marriage (the archduke Philip, father to Charles, afterwards emperor, being dead) it was accorded, that Charles, now archduke of Austria and king of Castile, should take to wife Renée, daughter to Lewis XII. deceased; and that Francis I. his successor, should give in dowry with the said lady the duchy of Berry, and 600,000 crowns; and that Renée should give up to king Francis all her right, both by father and mother, of the duchy of Milan: and this marriage proceeded so far, as all conditions were agreed on and sworn between the princes.

In the mean while the great Ferdinand dies; and now comes Charles archduke of Austria, king of Castile and Arragon, upon the stage; who inherited his grandfather Ferdinand as well in all his kingdoms, as in his subtleties and breach of faith.

And to the end that he might obtain of king Francis a passage by the way of France into Spain, as well to possess himself of his kingdoms there, as to fortify Navarre, lately conquered, he creates a peace with France, (made fearful unto him by the great overthrow given to the Switzers at the battle of Marignan;) and instead of Renée, daughter to Lewis, he desired the lady Louisa, daughter to king Francis, presently reigning, Renée being afterwards married to the duke of Ferrara.

For the accomplishment of this alliance, Lyons was appointed; where it was concluded by the deputies, that the kingdom of Navarre should be restored to Henry of Al

bent, son to John of Albret, and father to Foix, lately deceased.

That king Francis should, by way of dowry to his daughter, clearly resign all his right in the kingdom of Naples; and Charles was to pay unto the king 150,000 ducats yearly towards the maintenance of Louisa his wife, till she became of full age; with divers other conditions agreed to and

sworn.

But this lady dying after, a marriage was concluded between the said Charles and king Francis's younger daughter, upon the former conditions.

But in the mean while the emperor Maximilian leaves the world; and Charles, not contented with all the kingdoms of Spain, (Portugal excepted,) nor with all the dukedoms and earldoms of the Netherlands, nor with the kingdoms of Sicily, but he affects the empire of Germany, and dealt not therein as king Francis, who had the same ambition; but having new settled his estates in Spain, Naples, and Navarre, which he could not but by the pretence of the aforesaid marriage, he raised an army on the sudden, which marched towards Francfort; and assuring thereby those of his own party, and discouraging the rest, he was forthwith elected emperor of Germany.

And now he forgets his father-in-law king Francis; forgets the restitution of Navarre; forgets the pension promised to the lady Louisa; and, in conclusion, he took to wife the sister of John, king of Portugal, with whom he had a great mass of money, to maintain his war against the French.

By this you may see to what great advantage these princes used the sacrament of marriage; for being twice promised to Renée, and twice married to the daughters of Francis I. and once given to the lady Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. having served his turn by them all, he left them to seek new paramours. And it is well noted by those that knew the stories of those times, that before the battle of Pavia, where king Francis was made prisoner, Charles always wrote to king Henry VIII. "Your son and cousin Charles ;" but

never after that time did he afford him one line but by his secretaries; nor ever after subscribed more than simple Charles. And by deluding king Henry by promise of being his son-in-law, he did not only borrow great sums of money of him, but drew him often into France, to the great prejudice of that nation.

But we may not end here; for Charles, that had himself married so many wives, had also store for other men; for, the better to confirm the duke of Bourbon in his disloyalty against his sovereign lord king Francis, he promised him his own sister, Eleanor, widow of Emanuel, king of Portugal; but that poor duke finding himself derided, died soon after in the ditch of Rome, as he offered to assail the walls thereof.

And Charles the emperor, having now king Francis his prisoner at Madrid in Spain, made a match between him and his said sister, formerly promised to Bourbon, upon condition that Francis should resign all his right in Italy, render unto the emperor the duchy of Burgundy, quit the sovereignty of Flanders and Artois, with many other insolent and cruel conditions; whereby you may perceive, that although the Spaniard had often abused the French by offering them marriages never meant; yet at last they made a bargain outright, but such a costly one, as should cost for ever the French the price of a Spanish wife.

But this matrimonial traffick is not yet at an end; the market is still continued by the emperor. For Francis I. resolving to recover the duchy of Milan, and to take an account of the duke of Savoy for his mother's inheritance therein, prepares an army to effect it.

The emperor, being newly returned out of Africa, and from the taking of Tunis, finding his forces marvellously decayed by the great heat of that country and toils of war, and therefore not in case at present to resist king Francis, he created a marriage between the infanta of Portugal and the dauphin of France; and between the duke Angoulesme, the king's younger son, and the infanta of Spain, though he did not directly name her. He offered to give to any one

of the king's sons 100,000 crowns a year out of the duchy of Milan, desiring withal that the duke of Orleans might accompany him in the conquest of Algiers; than which, and than any of these marriages, he never meant any thing less. And doubting that the king would not bite at any of these baits, he also offered to invest the duke of Angoulesme in the duchy of Milan.

These goodly offers the king could not refuse, though he had experience enough of the Spanish treachery; but while the emperor held the king in this treaty, he got time to levy an army in Germany, to prepare his fleet by Andrew Dorea at Genoa, to make a confederacy in Italy, and to draw thither all the Spanish garrisons out of Sicily commanded by Gonsalvo. After which, he never spake word of these marriages, nor of any pension, nor restitution of Milan.

Now for conclusion, we will remember the goodly marriage between king Philip II. and queen Mary of England, formerly promised to his father Charles; for after that Charles had failed in his design to make England a province, and subject to Spain, he drew the good queen into a war against the French; but after his turn was served, and the victory at St. Quintin's, he, Philip, concluded a peace with France, not so much as including the queen his wife; who, being abandoned by her husband, she lost the good town of Calais, which had remained in the possession of the crown of England from the year 1347 to the year 1558.

Neither had king Philip's second wife, the lady Elizabeth of France, the daughter of king Henry II. any great cause of joy in that her advancement; for she died in Spain after a strange manner, as it was suspected.

Now, methinks, I hear some Englishmen Hispaniolized say unto the king, that seeing the kings of France, but especially of Spain, have often matched themselves with the dukes of Savoy; why should not his majesty also accept of their alliance? But his majesty, being of an universal understanding, will easily find the difference. For though the kings of Polonia found it greatly to their advantage to match with the dukes of Lithuania; yet if such an overture

were made to our king, he would find it exceedingly ridiculous. For the French king, and the kings of Spain, who have often quarrelled for Italy, Naples, and Milan, and who are like hereafter so to do, have great reason to make the dukes of Savoy theirs: France in respect of a passage into Italy, Spain in respect of a bulwark against France.

But our kings of England, who have no business over the Alps, and who pretend no title to Milan or Naples, but as kings of France, (which if ever God restore unto them, they shall as easily beat the Savoyan as the French hath done,) can make no use of that alliance other than to draw them into a war for the defence of those dukes. But let us somewhat, amongst these other respects, enter into the due consideration of the person of this excellent young princess, the only daughter of our sovereign, the dear beloved sister of our prince, and one of the precious jewels of this kingdom; let us, I say, but indifferently examine what increase of honour and dignity, what great comfort and contentment she can expect or hope for by the benefit of this match.

For the first, to wit, honour and dignity; as she is born the eldest, and now the only daughter of one of the mightiest kings of Christendom, so is she thereby of higher place and state than the wife of a duke of Savoy; besides, in her birth and blood, both of father and mother, descended of such royal races as Savoy cannot add any greater grace or glory unto; and by nature and education endowed with such princely perfections, both of body and mind, as may well deserve to be reputed a worthy spouse for the greatest monarch of Christendom; especially considering the possibilities of the daughters of England, whereof we have had many precedents, and at this time is happily manifested in the king's majesty, our sovereign, being descended of a daughter of England; whereby the island, formerly divided, is again now made one Great Britain, to the mutual strength of either.

Now to confer the possibility of such a fortune upon a poor popish prince of Savoy, that can return no recompense of benefit to this state, were greatly for his glory, though