ANECDOTES SOME DISTINGUISHED PERSONS, &c. &c. &ca TH JOHN THE SECOND, DUKE OF BOURBON. THIS Prince, in the year 1369, inftituted an Order of Chivalry. One of the ftatutes of it is curious, and fhews the high opinion he entertained of the influence of the female fex upon the virtue and the happinefs of mankind. According to this ftatute, the Knights are obliged to pay due respect to all Ladies both married and unmarried, and never to fuffer any thing derogatory to their reputation to be faid in their prefence; "for," adds the ftatute, "thofe who speak ill of "women have very little honour, and (to their "difgrace be it mentioned), fay of that fex, which cannot revenge itfelf, what they would YOL. I. B * not. "not dare to fay of a man; for from women, "after God, arifes a great part of the honour that ❝ there is in the world." The Latin anagram of Bourbon is BORBONIUS, Good to the world." CHARLES THE BOLD, DUKE OF BURGUNDY. THIS Prince having met with very great refiftance as he was befieging the town of Nefle, in Picardy, as foon as it was furrendered to him, ordered the inhabitants to be put to the fword, the commanding officer to be hung upon the ramparts, and the whole town to be fet on fire. Then, looking on thefe atrocities with the greatest sangfroid, he faid to one of his attendants, “ Tel fruit porte Parbre de la guerre :" "Such fruit "does the tree of war bear." Car des femmes apres Dieu vient un partie de l'honneur qui eft au monde. EDWARD ἐσ EDWARD THE FOURTH, KING OF ENGLAND. "THIS King," fays Habington, "if we compare his life with the lives of Princes in "general, was worthy to be numbered amongst "the best. His education was according to the beft provifion for his honour and fafetie in વર્ડ arms; a ftrict and religious difcipline, in all "probabilitie likely to have foftened him too much to mercy and a love of quiet. He had a "great extent of wit, which certainly he owed "to nature, that age bettering men but little by "learning the trumpet founding ftill too loud "in his ears to have admitted the fober counfels "of philofophy; and his wit lay not in the flights " of cunning and deceit, but in a sharpe apprehenfion, yet not too much whetted by fuper« ftition. "In counfaile he was judicious, with little difficultie difpatching much. His understanding ચંદ open to cleare doubts, not dark and cloudie, "and apt to create new. His wifedome looked «ftill directly upon truth, which appears by the "manage of his affaires, both in peace and warre; "in neither of which (as farre as concerned the "politique part) he committed any maine error. "His nature certainly was both noble and "honeft, which, if rectified by the ftraight rule "of vertue, had rendered him fit for example "(whereas he is only now for obfervation; for "profperitee raised him but to a complacencie in "his fortune, not to a difdaine of others loffes "in a pride of his own acquifitions. And when "he had moft fecuritie in his kirigdom, and con fequently most allurements to tyrannee, then fhewed he himself moft familiar and indulgent. "An admirable temperature in a Prince who "fo well knew his own ftrength, and whom tlie "love of riot neceffitated to a love of treasure, "which commonly is fupplied by oppreffion, of * the fubject. His buildings were few, but "fumptuous for the time *, which are yet to be "feene at the Tower of London, his house of "Eltham, the Caftles of Nottingham and Dover, "but above all at Windfor, where he built the new Chapel (finished after by Sir Reginald. "Bray, Knight of the Order), and endowed the 46 Colledge with negative revenues, which he gave not, but transferred thither, taking from "King's Colledge in Cambridge, and Eaton Col "ledge, a thousand pounds the yeare, to enrich "this at Windfor. 1540. "But "But our buildings, like our children, are * obnoxious to death, and time fcorns their folly "who place a perpetuitie in either. And indeed *the fafer kind of fate happened to King Edward, "in both these felicities: his pofteritie, like his edifices, loft in other names. "Edward," fays Habington, "to recover him "the great love which in both fortunes the "Londoners had fhewed him to his laft houre, ufed towards them a particular kindneffe, even fo much that he invited the Lord Mayor, "Aldermen, and fome of the principal Citizens * to the foreft of Waltham, to give them a friendly, not a pompous entertainment, where in a pleasant lodge they were feafted, the King "himself feeing their dinner ferved in; and by thus ftoopinge downe to a loving familiarity, funke deepe into their hearts; and that he fex "he he always affected might not bee unremembered, he caused great plentie of venifon "to be fent to the Lady Mayorefs and the Alder. men's wives.?? Louis the Eleventh of France having, contrary to treaty, refused the Dauphin in marriage to the daughter of Edward, that Monarch thus addreffed his Parliament: "This contumelie I am re"folved to punish, and I cannot doubt fucceffe. Almighty в 3 |