Chapter I: How the King of France cajoled the English after the Duke (4)

But to return from this digression. King Edward was a very young prince, and one of the handsomest men of his age, at the time he had overcome all his difficulties; so he gave himself up wholly to pleasures, and took no delight in anything but ladies, dancing, entertainments, and the chase; and in this voluptuous course of life, if I mistake not, he spent about sixteen years, till the quarrel happened between him and the Earl of Warwick. In which contest, though the king was driven out of the kingdom, yet his misfortune lasted not long; for he quickly returned, obtained a victory, and afterwards fell again to his pleasures, and indulged himself in them more recklessly than before. From this time he feared nobody; but he grew very fat, and his excess inclining him to diseases, in the very flower of his age, he died suddenly (as it was reported) of an apoplexy[176], and his family perished after him (as you have heard), as regarded the succession in the male line.

In our time also, there reigned two wise and valiant princes, Matthias, King of Hungary[177], and Mahomet Ottoman, Emperor of the Turks.[178] This King Matthias was the son of a very valiant gentleman, called the White Knight of Wallachia[179], a person of great honour and prudence, who for a long time had governed the kingdom of Hungary, and had gained several battles over the Turks, who are neighbours to that country, by reason of the territories which they have usurped in Sclavonia, Bosnia, and Greece. Not long after his death, Lancelot[180] came to man’s estate, who was heir to that kingdom, and to the kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland besides. This Lancelot was advised by some persons (as was reported) to seize upon the two sons of the White Knight, on the pretence that, as their father had obtained and exercised so much power and authority in that kingdom during his infancy, it was not improbable that his sons might do the same. Upon which the said Lancelot resolved to have them both apprehended, which was accordingly done. He put the eldest[181] to death, and sent the other, which was Matthias, a prisoner to Buda, the chief town in Hungary; but he did not remain long in confinement (God Almighty being perhaps pleased with the services of his father), for, awhile after, King Lancelot was poisoned at Prague, in Bohemia, by a lady of quality (whose brother I have seen), with whom he had been in love, and she with him; but being incensed at his intended marriage in France, with the daughter[182] of King Charles VII. (called now the Princess of Vienne), which was contrary to his engagement to her, she poisoned him in a bath, by giving him an apple to eat, and conveying poison into the haft of his knife. Upon the death of Lancelot, the barons of Hungary assembled at Buda for the election of a king, according to an ancient privilege which they have, to elect their king when his predecessor has died without issue. Whilst they were mightily divided, and in great controversy about the election, the widow of the White Knight, and mother of Matthias, entered the town with a very splendid equipage; for she was very rich, especially in ready money, which her husband had left her, by means of which she was able to raise men immediately; and, besides, it is not improbable that she had partisans in the town, and among the electors, upon account of the influence and authority her husband had had in that kingdom. As soon as she came into the city, she marched directly to the prison, and released her son; upon which some of the barons and prelates who were assembled fled in terror out of the town, and those that remained chose Matthias for their king; and he reigned among them in great prosperity, with as much applause and esteem as any of his predecessors, and in some things with even more. He was a man of as much courage as any of that age, and obtained many signal victories over the Turks, without any loss to his kingdom, which he much enlarged, as well towards Turkey as towards Bohemia (most of which was in his possession), and also in Wallachia (where he was born) and Sclavonia; and on the side towards Germany he took the greatest part of Austria from the Emperor Frederic, and kept it till his death, which happened in Vienna, the chief city of Austria, in the year 1491. He was a prince who managed his affairs discreetly, both in peace and in war. Towards the latter end of his days, finding he was become formidable, he began to affect a pompous and splendid way of living, and provided great store of rich hangings, jewels, and plate, for the adornment of his palace. All his business was dispatched by himself, or by his direction: he had also an inclination to make himself terrible to his own subjects, and became a very tyrant towards his latter end; after which he fell into a grievous and incurable distemper, as it were in his youth (for he was but eight-and-twenty[183] years of age), and died: his life having been one continued scene of labour and sorrow, without any great pleasure or ease.

The Turk, whom I mentioned before, was a wise and valiant prince, but he made more use of his cunning than of his courage. His father[184] also was a valiant prince, who took Adrianople (that is to say, the city of Adrian), and left his son very great; and this son, at the age of twenty-three, took Constantinople[185], or the city of Constantine; I have seen his portrait painted at that age, which represented him vigorous and sprightly. It was a great disgrace to all Christendom to suffer that city to be lost; he took it by assault, and the Emperor of the East[186] (whom we called Emperor of Constantinople) was slain in the breach. Many brave men were killed with him in this assault, many great ladies ravished, and no manner of cruelty was omitted. This was his first exploit, but he continued to perform great actions, and so many, that I heard a Venetian ambassador say once in the presence of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, that this Mahomet had conquered two empires, four kingdoms, and two hundred cities; he meant, indeed, the empires of Constantinople and Trebizond[187]; the kingdoms of Bosnia, Syria, Armenia, and I think Morea was the fourth. He conquered likewise many fair islands in the Archipelago (where the Venetians have two[188] settlements), among others, Negropont and Mitylene; besides which he subdued nearly all Albania and Sclavonia: and as his conquests were great over the Christians, so were they no less considerable over those of his own religion, among whom he destroyed several great princes, as the Prince of Caramania[189], and others.

The greatest part of his affairs were transacted by himself, according to the practice of our king and of the king of Hungary; and these three were without all dispute the wisest princes that had reigned for a hundred years. But the generosity of our master’s conversation, and his liberality to his servants, as well as to foreigners and others, distinguished him very much from the other two; and it is no wonder, for he was styled the most Christian King. As to worldly pleasures and enjoyments, this Turk had his share, and spent most of his time in them; and, indeed, he would have done more mischief to Christendom, had he not been so employed. He indulged himself in all kinds of sensuality, and was strangely given to gluttony, which brought him numberless diseases, which continued upon him as long as he lived. Every spring he had a swelling in his legs, that made them as big as a man’s waist (as I have heard from those who have seen it); and the swelling never broke, but dispersed of its own accord, and no surgeon could tell what to make of it, but all agreed his gluttony was the occasion of it, though perhaps it was a judgment from heaven; and one reason why he suffered himself to be seen so seldom, and kept himself shut up in his seraglio, was, lest he should discover that infirmity, and grow contemptible to his subjects. He died about the fifty-second year of his age, and suddenly; yet he made a will, and I have seen it, and, if it be true, he seemed to have some remorse for a tax which he had lately laid upon his subjects. Let Christian princes therefore consider what they do, since they have no reasonable power to raise money, without the permission and consent of their people.

Thus have you seen the death of many illustrious persons in a short time, who had borne so much sorrow, and endured so many fatigues, only to extend their dominions, and advance their fame and glory, as perhaps tended not only to the shortening of their lives, but to the endangering the welfare of their immortal souls. I am not speaking here of the Turk, for I question not but that he is gone to his predecessors, but of our king and the rest, on whom I hope God will have mercy. But to speak freely (as one that is no great scholar or genius, but has had some experience in the world), would it not have been better for them, and for all other great princes and subjects whatever, to choose a middle course in all their desires; that is, not to be so solicitous and careful about temporal things, and have such vast and unreasonable designs in view; but to be more cautious of offending God, oppressing their subjects, and invading their neighbours, by so many cruel and unchristian ways, as I have mentioned before, and rather employ their time in tranquillity and innocent diversions? Their lives would be longer, their infirmities the later in coming, their deaths less desirable to other people, and less terrible to themselves. Can we desire any clearer examples to prove how poor and inconsiderable a creature man is, how short and miserable his life, and how little difference there is betwixt princes and private persons, since as soon as they are dead, whether rich or poor, their bodies become abominable, all people fly and shun them, and their souls are no sooner separated but they prepare to receive their doom, which is given by God at that very instant of time, according to every man’s works, and bodily deserts.