Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/465

 HISTORY OF KIM. 1 1 i:IIY VII. Neither had the king yet cast off his cares and up to the number of two thousand nr better. Which In [) s lunching Hritain, but thought to master the forces joining with some companies of Alnuiins, OOCftUi n by po icy, though his -.irins had heen put themselves into Dixmude, not perceived by unfortunate; and to bereave the French king of the enemies; and passing through the town with the fruit of his victory. The sum of his design | some reinforcement, from the forces that were in was, to encourage Maximilian to go on with his j the town, assailed the enemies camp negligently suit, for the marriage of Anne, the heir of Britain, i guarded, as being out of fear ; where there was a and aid him to the consummation thereof. But the affairs of Maximilian were at that time in great trouble and combustion, by a rebellion of his subjects in Flanders ; especially those of Bruges and Gaunt, whereof the town of Bruges, at such time as Maximilian was there in person, had suddenly armed in tumult, and slain some of his principal officers, and taken himself prisoner, and held him in durance till they had enforced him and some of his counsellors to take a solemn oath to pardon all their offences, and never to question and revenge the same in time to come. Nevertheless Frederick the emperor would not suffer this reproach and indignity offered to his son to pass, but made sharp wars upon Flanders to reclaim and chastise the rebels. But the Lord Ravenstein, a principal person about Maximilian, and one that had taken the oath of abolition with his master, pretending the religion thereof, but indeed upon private ambition, and, as it was thought, instigated and corrupted from France, forsook the emperor and Maximilian his lord, and made himself a head of the popular party, and seized upon the towns of Ipres and Sluice, with both the castles : and forthwith sent to the Lord Cordes, governor of Picardy under the French king, to desire aid ; and to move him, that he, on the behalf of the French king, would be protector of the United Towns, and by force of arms reduce the rest. The Lord Cordes was ready to embrace the occasion, which was partly of his own setting, and sent forthwith greater forces than it had been possible for him to raise on the sudden, if he had not looked for such a summons before, in aid of the Lord Ravenstein and the Flemings, with instructions to invest the towns between France and Bruges. The French forces besieged a little town called Dixmude, where part of the Flemish forces joined with them. While they lay at this siege, the King of England, upon pretence of the safety of the English pale about Calais, but in truth being loath that Maximilian should become contemptible, and thereby be shaken off by the states of Britai n about this marriage, sent over the Lord Morley with a thousand men, unto the Lord D Aubigny, then deputy of Calais, with secret instructions to aid Maximilian, and to raise the siege of Dixmude. The Lord D Aubigny, giving it out that all was for the strengthening of the English marches, drew out of the garrisons of Calais, Hammes, and Guines, to the number of a thousand men more. So that with the fresh succours that came under the conduct of the Lord Morley, they made VOL. I. 43 bloody fight, in which the English and their par takers obtained the victory, and slew to the num ber of eight thousand men, with the loss on the English part of a hundred or thereabouts, amongst whom was the Lord Morley. They took also their great ordnance, with much rich spoils, which they carried to Newport; whence the Lord D Aubigny returned to Calais, leaving the hurt men and some other voluntaries in Newport. But the Lord Cordes being at Ipres with a great power of men, thinking to recover the loss and disgrace of the fight at Dixmude, came presently on, and sat down before Newport, and besieged it ; and after some days siege, he resolved to try the fortune of an assault. Which he did one day, and succeeded therein so far, that he had taken the principal tower and fort in that city, and planted upon it the French banner. &quot;Whence nevertheless they were presently beaten forth by the English, by the help of some fresh succours of archers, arriving by good fortune, at the instant, in the haven of Newport. Whereupon the Lord Cordes, discouraged, and measuring the new succours, which were small, by the success, which was great, levied his siege. By this means matters grew more exasperate between the two kings of England and France, for that, in the war of Flanders, the auxiliary forces of French and English were much blooded one against another. Which blood rankled the more, by the vain words of the Lord Cordes, that declared himself an open enemy of the English, beyond that that appertained to the present service; making it a common by-word of his, &quot;That he could be content to lie in hell seven years, so he might win Calais from the English.&quot; The king having thus upheld the reputation of Maximilian, advised him now to press on his mar riage with Britain to a conclusion. Which Maxi milian accordingly did, and so far forth prevailed, both with the young lady and with the principal persons about her, as the marriage was consum mated by proxy, with a ceremony at that time in these parts new. For she was not only publicly con tracted, but stated, as a bride, and solemnly bedded ; and after she was laid, there came in Maximilian s ambassador with letters of procuration, and in the presence of sundry noble personages, men and women, put his leg stript naked to the knee be tween the espousal sheets; to the end, that that ceremony might be thought to amount to a con summation and actual knowledge. This dom, Maximilian, whose property was to leave things then when they were almost come to perfection, 2F