Likewife if there are any new Inventions or Undertakings, which have obtained or deferved Success, I fhall be obliged to thofe who will be fo kind as to give me any Information of that nature. And fhall either quote my Authors, or obferve a religious Silence, according as they think it proper.

As to this prefent Essay, it is intended as a kind of Preface or Introduction to the HENRIADE, which is almost entirely printed, nothing being wanting but the printing of the Cuts, which I must recommend here as particular Mafter-Pieces of Art in their kind: 'tis the only Beauty in the Book, that I can anfwer for.

1

THE

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

CIVIL WARS

OF

FRANCE,

Upon which the HENRIA DE is grounded.

H

ENRY the Great, King of France, was born in the Year 1553, in Pau, a fmall Town, the Capital of Bearn; his Father Anthony of Bourbon Duke of Vendome, was of the Royal Blood, and the Head of that Branch called Bourbon, which formerly fignified Muddy, from a Place fo call'd, which fell to their Family by a Marriage with an Heirefs of that Name.

The Houfe of Bourbon, from Lewis the Ninth down to Henry the Fourth, had been almost always neglected, and reduced to fuch a degree of Poverty, that the famous Prince of Conde, Brother to Anthony of Navarre, and Uncle to Henry the Great, had not fix hundred Pounds a Year of his own.

The Mother of Henry was Jeanne d'Albret, Daughter to Henry d'Albret, King of Navarre; a good Man, and a worthlefs Prince, rather flothful than peaceable; who bore with too much Refignation the privation of his Kingdom, which had been taken from his Father by the Pope's Bull, fupported by the Arms of Spain.

Jeanne, Daughter to fo weak a Prince, had yet a weaker Husband, to whom the brought for a Portion her little Principality of Bearn, and the empty Title of King of Navarre.

This Prince, who lived in a time of Factions and Civil Wars, which required a steady Mind, was always fickle and. wavering in his Conduct; he never knew of what Party he was, nor of what Religion; neither fit for a Court, nor qualified to be a General: He spent all his Life in courting his Enemies, and in undoing his Servants; deceived by Catherine of Medicis, baffled and oppreffed by the Guifes, nay, cheated always by him

felf.

felf. He was mortally wounded at the Siege of Rouen, where he was fighting the Caufe of his Enemies againft the Intereft of his own House; and he died, as he had lived, uncertain and anxious.

Jeanne d'Albret was quite of an oppofite Temper, full of Courage and Refolution, feared by the Court of France, beloved by the Proteftants, efteemed by both. She knew all the fuperior parts of Policy, but never the mean Craft of Intrigue. It is very remarkable, that he turned Prote ftant at the very time her Husband turned Catholick; but from that day fhe was as firmly attached to her new Religion, as Anthony was wavering in his. By these means fhe became the Head of one Party, whilft her Husband was the Slave and Bubble of the other.

She took the Education of her Son entirely into her own hands. Henry was born with all the Endowments of his Mother, and he improved 'em eminently afterwards. He had nothing of his Father, except that Eafinefs of Temper, which in Anthony was Uncertainty and Weaknefs, but proved in Henry Benevolence and Good-Nature.

He was not brought up like a Prince, in that effeminate Pride, which enervates the Body, weakens the Understanding, and hardens the Heart. His Food was

coarfe, his Clothes plain; he went always bare-headed, was fent to School with the young Companions of his Age, climbed up with them among Rocks and Woods to the Tops of the neighbouring Mountains, according to the Cuftom of that Country, and of thofe Times.

While he was thus bred up with his Subjects in a fort of Equality, without which a Prince is too apt to forget he is born a Man; Fortune opened in France a bloody Scene, and through the Ruins of that Kingdom almoft overturned, and over the Graves of many Princes untimely cut off, prepared him a way to a Throne, which he was in time to conquer, and to reftore to its Grandeur.

Henry the Second, King of France, the Head of the Branch of Valois, was killed at Paris, in a Tournament, which was the laft in Europe of these romantick and dangerous Sports.

He left four Sons, Francis the Second, Charles the Ninth, Henry the Third, and the Duke d'Alençon; all the unworthy Pofterity of the great Francis the First, all (except Alençon) afcended the Throne one after another; all lived fhamefully, died untimely, and without Iffue.

The Reign of Francis the Second was fhort, but made famous by the firft breaking out of thofe Factions, and by the be

ginning