in this manner, for we spare goodness as much as we can. Before this mode of casting, our cannons were not near so good, but a hundred times more fragile, aud requiring to be very often refreshed with vinegar, which occasioned much more trouble. He was of a very large person, a fine and venerable old man, with a beard that reached down very low, and seemed to have been his old comrade in war in the days of yore, which he had all along made his profession, and where he learned to be somewhat cruel."

ESTREES (FRANCIS ANNIBAL D'), duke, peer, and marshal of France, son of the subject of the preceding article, was born in the year 1573. At first he embraced the ecclesiastical state, and king Henry IV. appointed him to the bishopric of Laon; but he quitted the church to take up the profession of arms. He signalized himself on several occasions, brought succours to the duke of Mantua in 1626, took Treves, and distinguished himself no less by his sagacity than by his valour. Being appointed in 1636 ambassador extraordinary to Rome, he honourably executed that office in supporting the glory and interests of the crown, but not with the prudence requisite in such an office; and his rudeness and sallies of temper so involved him in differences with Urban VIII. and his nephews, that it was found necessary to recall him; which he much resented, and refused to appear at court to give an account of his conduct. He died at Paris the 5th of May, 1670, in his ninety-eighth year. The marshal d'Estrées was more calculated for serving the king at the head of his troops, than in intricate negociations. Not content with making his character respected, he would make his person feared. He was brother of the fair Gabriel d'Estrées, whose history is given in a subsequent article. He was the author of, 1. "Memoirs of the regency of Mary de Medicis," the best edition of which is that of Paris, 1666, 12mo, which has a preliminary epistle by Pierre le Moine. 2. Relation of the siege of Mantua, in 1630; and another of the Conclave in which Gregory XV. was elected in 1621. In these different works, although the style, that of a man more accustomed to weild the sword than the pen, is incorrect, there reigns an air of truth which disposes the reader to think favourably of the integrity of the author.

ESTREES (CÆSAR D'), cardinal, abbot of St. Germaindes-Prés, son of the preceding, was born in 1628, and raised to the see of Laon in 1653, after having received the doctor's hood of Sorbonne. The king made choice of him, not long after, as mediator between the pope's nuncio and the four bishops of Aleth, of Beauvois, of Pamiers, and of Angers, and he had so far the art of conciliating the most opposite tempers, as to effect a short-lived peace to the church of France. He went afterwards to Bavaria, by the appointment of Louis XIV. to negociate the marriage of the dauphin with the electoral princess, and to transact other affairs of importance; and afterwards he went to Rome, where he asserted the rights of France during the disputes about the regale, and was charged with all the business of the court, after the death of the duke his bro ther, in 1689. He reconciled the disputes of the clergy with Rome, and had a great share in the elections of popes Alexander VIII. Innocent XII. and of Clement XI. When Philip V. set out to take possession of the throne of Spain, the cardinal d'Estrées received orders to attend him, to be one of the ministry of that prince. He returned to France in 1703, and died in his abbey the 18th of December 1714, at the age of eighty-seven. The cardinal d'Estrées was well-versed in the affairs both of church and state. With a comprehensive genius, he possessed agreeable and polite manners, an amiable talent in conversation, a great equality of temper, a love for literature, and was charitableto the poor. If he was not always successful in his negociations, it was neither the fault of his understanding nor of his prudence. He wrote, 1. " He wrote, 1. "L'Europe vivante et mourante," Brussels (for Paris), 1759, 24mo. 2. "Replique, au nom de M. Desgrouais, a la lettre de l'abbe Desfontaines, inserée dans le 6 vol. des Jugemens de M. Burlon de La Busbaquerie," Avignon, 1745, 12mo.

ESTREES (GABRIELLE D'), sister of François Annibal d'Estrées, was endowed from her birth with all the gifts and graces of nature. Henry IV. who saw her for the first time in 1591, at the château de Coeuvres, where she lived with her father, was so smitten with her figure and wit, that he resolved to take her to be his favourite mistress. In order to obtain an interview, he disguised himself one day like a countryman, passed through the enemy's guards,

1. Moreri. Dict. Hist.

and pursued his way at the imminent hazard of his life. Gabrielle, who was fond of the duke de Bellegard, the master of the horse, hesitated at first to comply with the ardent affection of the king; but the elevation of her father and of her brother, the sincere attachment of Henry, his affable and obliging manners, at length prevailed on her. In order that he might visit her more freely, Henry made her marry Nicholas d'Amerval, lord of Liancourt, with whom she never cohabited. Henry loved her to so violent a degree, that though he was married, he was determined. to make her his wife. It was in this view that Gabrielle engaged her fond lover to take up the Roman catholic religion, to enable him to obtain from the pope a bull to dissolve his marriage with Marguerite de Valois, and united her utmost efforts with those of Henry IV. to remove the obstacles that prevented their union; but these schemes were defeated by her sudden death, April 10, 1599. It is pretended that she was poisoned by the rich financier Zamet: she died, however, in dreadful convulsions, and on the day following her death, her face was so disfigured, that it was impossible to be known. Of all the mistresses of Henry, he was most attached to this woman, whom he made duchess of Beaufort, and at her death put on mourning, as if she had been a princess of the blood, yet she had not so entire a sway over his heart as to alienate him from his ministers that were not agreeable to her; much less to make him dismiss them. She took occasion to say to him one day on the subject of Sully, with whom she was displeased: "I had rather die, than live under the shame of seeing a footman upheld against me, who bear the title of mistress." "Pardieu, madame," said Henry, "this is too much; and I plainly perceive that you have been put upon this frolic as an attempt to make me turn away a servant whom I cannot do without. But I will not comply; and, that you may set your heart at rest, and not shew your peevish airs against my will, I de clare to you, that if I were reduced to the necessity of parting with one or the other, I could better do without ten mistresses like you than one servant like him*" During

"This stroke is from

one of the festivities that Henry occasionally gave to Gabrielle, dispatches were brought him that the Spaniards had taken possession of Amiens. heaven," said he, "I have been long enough acting the king of France; it is time to shew myself king of Navarre;" and then turning to d'Estrées, who, like him, was dressed out for the occasion, and who had burst into tears, he said to her: "My mistress, we must quit our arms and mount on horseback, to engage in another sort of war." The same day he got together some troops; and, laying aside the lover, assumed the hero, and marched towards Amiens. Henry IV. had three children by her; Cæsar duke of Vendôme, Alexander, and Henrietta, who married the marquis d'Elbœuf.1

ESTREES (VICTOR MARIE D'), born in 1660, succeeded John, count d'Estrées, his father, in the post of vice-admiral of France, which he filled with great reputation in the maritime parts of the Levant. He bombarded Barcelona and Alicant in 1691, and commanded in 1697 the fleet at the siege of Barcelona; being appointed in 1701 lieutenant-general of the naval forces of Spain by Philip V. a station which he held together with that of vice-admiral of France, and thus had the command of the Spanish and French fleets. Two years afterwards, in 1703, he was made marshal of France, and took the name of maréchal des Cœuvres. This dignity was followed by those of grandee of Spain, and knight of the golden fleece; all which he merited by his heroic but prudent courage. Though the abbé de St. Pierre describes him as a man of a capricious temper, he had an excellent disposition, and was capable of strong attachments. The French academy, that of sciences, and that of inscriptions, admitted him of their societies. Amidst the tumultuous occupations of war, be never forgot the cultivation of letters. He died at Paris, Dec, 28, 1737, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, equally lamented by the citizen, the scholar, and the philosopher. He left no issue by his wife, Lucia Felicia de Noailles.

vois bien qu'on vous a dressée à ce badinage, pour essayer de me faire chasser un serviteur duquel je ne puis me passer. Mais je n'en ferai rien;

afin que vous en teniez votre cœur en repos, et ne fassiez plus l'accariâtre › Dict. Hist.

contre ma volonté, je vous déclare, que si j'étois réduit en cette nécessité de perdre l'un ou l'autre, je me passerois mieux de dix maîtresses comme vous, que d'un serviteur comme lui'."

2 Ibid.

ESTREES (LOUIS CÆSAR, DUKE D'), marshal of France, and minister of state, was born at Paris, July 1, 1695, the son of François Michel le Tellier de Courtanvaux, captaincolonel of the Cent-Suisses, son of the marquis de Louvois and Marie Anne Catherine d'Estrées, daughter of John count d'Estrées, vice-admiral and marshal of France. He first bore arms in the short war which the duke of Orleans, regent, declared against Spain, and served under the command of the maréchal de Berwick. Having attained by his services the rank of field-marshal and inspector-general of cavalry, he signalized himself in the war of 1741. The blockade of Egra, the passage of the Meine at Selingstadt, the battle of Fontenoi, the siege of Mons, that of Charleroi, &c. were among the exploits in which he was concerned. He had the greatest share in the victory of Laufeldt; and marshal Saxe, an excellent judge of military merit, trusted him on various occasions with the most critical manœuvres. On the breaking out of the war in 1756, Louis XV. who had promoted him to the rank of marshal of France, Feb. 24, 1757, appointed him to the command of the army in Germany," consisting of upwards of 100,000 men. He set out in the beginning of spring, after having shewn the monarch the plan of operations. "At the beginning of July," said he, "I shall have pushed the enemy beyond the Weser, and shall be ready to penetrate into the electorate of Hanover;" and, not content with effecting this, he gave battle to the duke of Cumberland at Hastembeck, the 26th of July; after this, he was replaced by marshal Richelieu, who profited by the advantages that had been gained, to obtain the capitulation of Closterseven, by which the Hanoverians engaged to remain neuter during the rest of the war. Marshal d'Estrées, recalled by intrigues at court, and sent to Giessen, after the battle of Minden, took no share in the command, but contented himself with giving useful advice to M. de Contades. He obtained the brevet of duke in 1763, and he died the 2d of January, 1771, at the age of seventy-six. Marshal d'Estrées left no children.'

ETHELBERT, king of Kent, and the first Christian king among the Anglo-Saxons, succeeded to the throne He began his reign, in order to revive the reputation of his family, by making war upon the

about the

year 560.

Dict, Hist.