that the Turk is thought not to come, and that France is said to lack money, will utterly shew himself Imperial. He is persuaded that the French King does mean to turn him out of Florence, if time will serve, and, therefore he will do his best to turn him out of Siena while there is an Emperor's power to help him to it. The Frenchmen, of late, have abandoned Pienza, and divers other forts belonging to Siena, which the Imperials have ransacked and destroyed; the people of Siena much offended with them for it, because the King's promise was not only to save their town from taking, but their territory from the spoil. Montecelli and Chiusi the French do still hold; which, if they do forsake, it is thought they of Siena will, as they are changeable, become friends again to the Emperor, or, at least, enemies to France.

The Emperor is somewhat amended, as his apothecary says. A two days since his physician, Vesalius,* was with me; unto whom I said "the

* Andrew Vesalius, a native of Brussels, and a famous physician, anatomist, and astrologer. He died at Zante, in the following reign, on his return from Jerusalem, where he had been in consequence of the following circumstance. A Spaniard of distinction, who had been for some time his patient, seeming to have expired, Vesalius obtained leave from his family to open the body; which having performed, the heart was observed to move, and other signs of life appeared. The gentleman's friends hereupon prosecuted Vesalius as a murderer; and, to insure their revenge, at the same time accused him of impiety before the inquisition; from which tribunal Philip II. with some difficulty rescued him, on condition that he should make an expiatory pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He left some professional tracts, which are still to be met with in the libraries of the curious; and his portrait, very well painted on board, by John Calkar, an artist who died severa years before him, is preserved in the College of Physicians.

Emperor will make the world set less by physic than you physicians would have it; that the Emperor, ready to spend millions, can by all your recipes come by no health that is able to tarry with him two months together; I ween his sisters will prove his best physicians." His answer was, "It is rather he that may teach all men to honor physic, which hath so often plucked him from his grave." He told me that his Majesty taketh Guaiacum, and is far better now than he was twelve days since. When my successor is come we shall have a view of him, and so better judge right than we can learn by hearsay whether the Emperor amend or and yet I do not

believe I shall ever see him weaker than Mr. Dudley and I saw him at Luxemburg. And thus most humbly I take my leave of your Honors From Brussels, the 24th of March, 1553.

Your Lordships' most bounden so to be,
RICHARD MORYSIN.

No. XXIII.

(Cecil Papers.).

SIR RICHARD MORYSIN AND SIR THOMAS
CHAMBERLAYNE

TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

Please it your good Lordships,

MARCHES Albert is parted five or six days since from the Palgrave and the rest of the Princes, bidding no one of them farewell. He went his way over night, accompanied but with twelve

horses; men supposing that if he may have his will, the Bishops of Germany are like to have worse rest this summer than they had in either of the two past. He makes men in great fury, and says to them they must tarry a time for their wages; howbeit he hath appointed them places in the Bishop's countries, where they may live at their own discretion, that is licensed to spoil whom they find of less force than they themselves are. The rest of the Princes continue at Heidelburg, and devise how they may help things that almost seem past remedy. The Duke of Wirtemburg has agreed with Magister Teutonici Ordinis, so that the Duke shall have for his charges 66,000 dollars; but the King of Rome will not as yet agree with Wirtemburg. The suit is now seven years old; these Princes would fain end it. The King wills the crime to be felony, and so the Dukedom, with all the rest, to be forfeit. The Princes would have the King content with his action of Damni dati, and so would bring it to a fine of a convenient sum of money. The King asks, for his fine, a county belonging to the Duke, and also 300,000 dollars besides; the Duke will neither part with the land, nor grant him more than 150,000 dollars, which the Princes seem to allow for a very reasonable offer, considering what the Duke's father paid to the Emperor, what he himself hath paid, and the damages that his subjects have suffered. Wolradus, for want of money, stole from his soldiers, and hath given them leave to shift for themselves. The

He

Duke of Brunswick has already gathered together 20 ensigns of footmen, and 2000 horsemen. is in some hope to recover his state, already three times lost. He means once again to drive Albertus, the father, and Wolradus, his son, out of their countries. He threatens great revenge to the sea cities. The King of Denmark intends this summer to place his brother, Hans Frederick, in the Bishopric of Bream. The Dean of Colain, brother to the Duke of Brunswick, has entered upon the Bishopric, and confirmed by the Bishop of Rome; howbeit it is said the Emperor is content that Denmark's brother be Bishop there. The Duke of Saxony's preacher writes that there are agents from Duke Maurice, not yet come to Duke Frederick, but still looked for, to treat of a concord and amity between these two. He thinks there is some hope of it, for that the Emperor, the King of the Romans, and the other Princes of Germany, do much desire their atonement; and, as most men do earnestly wish the agreement, so there are very few that can see upon what ground they can hope for it. Duke Maurice hath parted of late with the Duke of Brunswick at Hala, where the Landgrave was first committed to prison; to what end their talk tended we can

Henry IV. Duke of Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel. He had been stripped of his dominions in 1543, by the Princes of the famous Smalcaldic league, which he, being a bigotted Papist, had always firmly opposed; and the Emperor, who took possession of them to hold in sequestration till these disputes should be settled, contrived matters so that Henry was never fully restored. He died in June, 1568, after experiencing strange vicissitudes, the effect of his impolitic conduct.

not hear, but it is thought Maurice will be of council with as many Germans as gather up men, either to have them on his side, if he need them, or not to have them against him where they may do him harm. Maurice maketh money where he can, by all means; and, amongst others, the Bishop and Chapter of Magdeburg have of late paid unto him 56,000 dollars, part of his expenses while he besieged Magdeburg. Marches Haus * of Brandenburg, who has to wife the Duke of Brunswick's daughter, hath far more men in readiness than he brought with him to serve the Emperor at Metz. The house of Brandenburg and Duke Maurice are at great enmity. Before that Duke Maurice did practise with France, Marches Hans had of the French King 20,000 guilders yearly, since he had not had an halfpenny. Ernestus, dying, hath left unto his brother, Duke John Frederick+ besides his yearly revenue of 20,000 guilders, a great deal of plate and ready money. The two brothers, Dukes of Mecklenburg, are at great discord; the one utterly friend to Duke Maurice, the other as much against him as may be.

He

Hans, or John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Custrin. married Catherine, daughter of Henry IV. Duke of Brunswick, &c.

↑ John Frederick, the late Elector of Saxony. Charles, who had deprived this Prince of his dominions to bestow them on Duke Maurice, had lately released him from a prison, where he had lain five years, and received him into some degree of favour He died March 4, in the following year, without having been restored to the Electorate, though he outlived his enemy Maurice.