ANECDOTES

SOME DISTINGUISHED PERSONS,

&c. &c. &c.

JOHN THE SECOND,

DUKE OF BOURBON.

THI

HIS 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 presence; "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 itself, what they would

* not.

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YOL. I.

"not dare to say of a man; * for from women, "after God, arises 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 greateft fangfroid, he faid to one of his attendants," Tel fruit porte Parbre de la guerre :" "Such fruit "does the tree of war bear."

•A

Car des femmes apres Dieu vient un partie de l'bonneur 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 best. His education was according to the

beft provifion for his honour and fafetie in "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 66 great extent of wit, which certainly he owed "to nature, that age bettering men but little by "learning the trumpet founding still 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 fharpe appre❝henfion, yet not too much whetted by superes ftition.

"In counfaile he was judicious, with little "difficultie difpatching much. His understanding &c open to cleare doubts, not dark and cloudie, "and apt to create new. His wifedome looked «ftill directly upon truth, which appears by the 66 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.

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"His

"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 thie "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 "fcene 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.

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 last 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 forest of Waltham, to give them a friendly, not a pompous entertainment, where in a pleasant lodge they were feafted, the King "himself seeing their dinner ferved in; and by thus ftoopinge downe to a loving familiarity, funke deepe into their hearts; and that he fex "he always affected might not bee unremembered, he caused great plentie of venifon ❝to be fent to the Lady Mayorefs 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.

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Almighty