Gems of female biography Author:Daniel Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the Cardinal of Tournon, Escars, and some other of his flatterers, who persuaded him, that by his observing a neutrality, and causing the prince, his son, to go ... more »once to the mass, the King of Spain would give him the kingdom of Sardinia in recompense for that of Navarre, which had lately been taken from him. The Pope also confirmed him in this hope, though he was only depriving him of all means for the recovery of the kingdom of Navarre, whenever he should attempt it. The king, overcome by these artifices, estranged himself by degrees from the Protestants, and solicited the queen, his wife, to return into the bosom of the Romish Church, and induce her children to follow her steps. But she, being better grounded in the .truth than so easily to renounce it, refused; upon which a breach took place between her and her husband. The above-mentioned persons seeing this, seized the advantage, and persuaded him that heresy was a sufficient cause of dissolving marriage, and that, therefore, he might be divorced from his queen, as she had imbibed its poison. They also suggested, that notwithstanding his divorce he would retain to himself the possession of all the dominions and territories belonging to his abdicated queen, of which she, upon the account of her heresy, would be deprived, as unworthy ofthem; and they added, that he should marry Mary, Queen of Scots, whose dowry they said was the kingdom of England, and of which the Pope, upon the consummation of the marriage, would strip Elizabeth, as undeserving of it for the same reason of heresy, and settle it upon them. But the King of Navarre abhorring a divorce, it remained that he should accept the conditions for being made King of Sardinia ; for the effecting which, the above counsellors left no methods unattempted, and at length s...« less