ANECDOTES O F SOME DISTINGUISHED PERSONS, &c. &c. &c. JOHN THE SECOND, DUKE OF BOURBON. Ac 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 happiness of mankind. cording to this ftatute, the Knights are obliged to pay due respect to all Ladies both married and unmarried, and never to suffer anything derogatory to their reputation to be faid in their presence; "for," adds the ftatute, " those who speak ill of "women have very little honour, and (to their "difgrace be it mentioned) fay of that fex, "which cannot revenge itself, what they would VOL. I. ❝ not "not dare to fay of a man; * for from womeff, "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 sword, the commanding officer to be hung upon the ramparts, and the whole town to be fet on fire. Then, looking on these atrocities with the greatest fang froid, he said to one of his attendants, " Fel fruit porte l'arbre 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 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 beft. His education was according to the "best provifion for his honour and fafetie in "arms; a strict and religious discipline, 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 appre "henfion, yet not too much whetted by super«ftition. "In counfaile he was judicious, with little "difficultie difpatching much. His understanding ¢ 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 poli"tique part) he committed any maine error. "His nature certainly was both noble and "honeft, which, if rectified by the straight 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 kingdom, 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 the "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 houfe 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 "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. "But our buildings, like our children, are ob"noxious 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 thefe 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 feasted, the King "himself feeing their dinner ferved in; and by "thus ftoopinge downe to a loving familiarity, "funke deepe into their hearts; and that the fex "he always affected might not bee unremem"bered, he caused great plentie of venison to be "sent to the Lady Mayoress and the Aldermen'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 B 3 |