to it But the Cause and the End of the Renunciation is For the publick good of the Kingdoms the conservation of the Greatness and the Glory of their Majesties to avoid the Discontents of the People and the Dammages which might arise from thence and to facilitate thenceforwards the Marriages between the Children and the Descendents of the two Kings and lastly to avoid the Hinderance which Reason of State brought to this Marriage and consequently to the Peace All these Causes are in their own nature irremoveable unalterable and of absolute necessity nor can be tied to a private Deed as is the payment of the Portion nor limited by any restrictive Conditions and on the contrary the obligation for payment of the Portion may depend as to its execution upon many Conditions and the effect thereof may be suspended for just causes In the Renunciation the Infanta hath obliged her self to the whole State in the Assignation of the Dowrie the King hath obliged himself to the most Christian King as the future Spouse of his Daughter The delay in the payment of the Portion is a prejudice in a pecuniarie matter which may easilie be repaired by paying the Interest which the Civil Law doth appoint after the term of payment is past to shew that deficiencie in the payment doth not annull the Contract since the Law hath provided for it by another remedie But the defect of the Renunciation would bring along with it a dammage which could never be compensed nor repaired whereby it may be judged that it hath not nor could not be the intention of the Parties to tie the Renunciation to the payment of the Portion and make so necessary a thing depend upon one so casual that it may be retarded by a thousand accidents The Renunciation also is conceived in terms of doing presently and the payment of the Portion in these of doing hereafter And from this present time I do hold my self content and entirely paid all that belongs or may belong unto me And as to the payment of the Portion it is said And this Summe shall be paid in the manner following c. It cannot likewise be conceived how this Scribbler dares to publish that the Spaniards did make the Infanta ratifie it posteriourly to her Marriage by some secret Acts which France hath never seen seeing he himself doth acknowledge that the most Christian King did ratifie it and that it is expressly set down in the VI. Article of the Contract of Marriage that the Queen should pass an Act of Renunciation before she shall marry in words importing the present time and afterwards shall approve and ratifie it joyntly with the most Christian King as soon as she shall have celebrated her Marriage And though France had never seen those Articles she cannot pretend any cause of ignorance of any of the Clauses contained therein seeing that by the same Article of the Treatie the most Christian King doth consent that this Renunciation should be made in the most effectual and fitting form which could be for their validity and firmness with the Clauses Derogations and Abrogations c. To which in the same Article he consented and hath approved them as if they had been already made They are held already made now for then by virtue of this Treatie But the Subtiltie of this Writer who seeks by all means to fasten himself upon such smooth ice leaves all the Substance of the Case behind to take hold of one word of the same Article which is providing the payment c. and would inferr that this Renunciation is absolutely relative not onely to the payment of the money but also to the terms of the payment designed in the Second Article which cannot subsist without altering the whole nature of the Treatie and giving a violent interpretation and opposite to the sense and to the conception of this Article and of the Renunciation because it is not said in this place that in case of payment she shall renounce but that she shall be content with the said Portion which declares no other thing but that when her Portion shall be pay'd she shall be content therewith it being certain that she could not be satisfied in this respect before she should be pay'd So that the defect of payment within the terms mentioned gives her a just right to pretend to it with the Interests which run from the time limited by the Laws if some just cause do not hinder which regularly would not be due without an express Promise unless that it were in favour of the Portion and cannot be extended farther L. 1. ff de Usutap And albeit there should be in that some obscurity of terms it is certain that in the Interpretation of such Treaties which are of upright Faith the Intention of the Parties is onely to be respected so that the Scruples which may arise from the Ambiguity of the words may not prejudge the principal end L. 1. de Legatis And it is the more manifest in this case because the Renunciation ought to be made in present and positive terms before the terms of payment should have been run out Wherefore to put the Queen in the right of re-entring into all her Pretensions by defect of punctual payment they should have declared it by an express Clause which should have reserved those Rights to the Queen in case of failing the rather because in the same Renunciation they do specifie two other cases in which she may be re-established in her Rights If the intention of the parties had been to extend it to this they would not have failed to explain it as clearly as the rest being that it was as important and as likely to happen By which it may be seen that this word providing is no restrictive Condition which suspends the Act of Renunciation or which can annull it because it is not said that in case of payment she shall renounce for in that case she would not have been obliged to renounce till after the payment or at least under the same condition but thereby it is onely meant that she shall content her self And he subjoyns the cause independent of the Portion By reason she ought to remain excluded of all of whatsoever condition or nature c. which cannot signifie any other thing but that by a preceding Agreement between the two Kings for the Reasons of State above mentioned she was to remain excluded In effect there can be no probability that for five hundred thousand Crowns of Gold she would ever have renounced the hopes of so great a Succession if some other more powerfull Motive had not given the weight to this Resolution and albeit even the payment of the Portion were one cause of the Renunciation they cannot deny but there are others more principal and superiour which do concurr thereunto and in this case respect is to be had to the chief and predominant and to the End that was proposed in this Deed. In
Children of the First Bed so much the more because that in the 94. the Eldest carries away all the Fiefs without distinction of the first or second Marriage and succeeds for his share with the Children both of the one and the other Bed The Texts which he alledges against this drawn from the 4th Article Chapter 105 and from the 3d Article Chapter 91 and others are applied by this Authour directly against the true sense and the ordinary practice of the Custome For if we consider Hainault as a Fief it is out of doubt that the Males of the Second Bed do exclude the Daughters of the First of which the practice is so regularly observed in all the Tribunals of that Province that it is to goe directly against a known Truth to bring this Question so much as in Controversie From whence it follows that the Customs which he cites cannot be understood in reference to Fiefs but where there is a concurrence of Male against Male or of Daughter against Daughter of two Beds in which case the Male of the first Marriage carries it before those of the Second Bed and the same doth the Daughter of the First Marriage before those of the Latter But when the Question is betwixt Male and Female the thing is out of all debate in favour of the Male. But if on the contrary they will make Hainault pass for a Freehold it is indubitable that the Father may dispose of it by Advice and by Testament and also by Substitution as is certain by the 6. Article of the same Chapter 105. The 9. Article of the 94. Chapter which he cites speaks onely of those Fiefs that come by Collateral Succession and cannot be made a Precedent in relation to Free-holds which the Parents may dispose of and that which he adds that according to the same Custome the direct Donations do pass for Purchaces is absolutely false when the Donation is made under the Title of a Portion and it is a monstrous thing that they should offer to make pass for a Purchace the Reversion of those Provinces in the person of Philip the IVth since it was expressly provided in the said Donation and that King Philip the Second and the Prince his Son had never consented to it but under this Clause of Reversion so that in the recovery of these Fiefs they are returned into their first nature of being the Legal Patrimonie of the Line of Philip the II d and they did alwaies remain such notwithstanding the Donation and chiefly in what relates to Hainault For if it be considered as a Free-hold having been given with a Clause of Reverting it staies alwaies in its qualitie of Patrimonie and if it be a Patrimonial Fief it is in the same qualitie likewise that it returns back again to the Giver We might also say that as being a Fief it could not be legally given away since it is certain that the Fathers in the County of Hainault may not dispose of them by Advice but by way of Disinheriting so that on which side soever it be taken it is impossible France should finde their advantage But 't is to dwell too long upon these Customary practices and to injure Princes to weigh their Rights in so weak and so unequal a Balance I cannot here omit in passing to desire the Reader to observe one notable Artifice by which France would give a false weight to her bad Cause by begg'd Authorities and subtilie stolen by a wittie Surprize The Authour of the Queen of France's Rights makes his great Batterie thereof and thinks to confound the Readers with these specious words of Universities which France hath consulted of Doctours from all parts who have subscribed to their Opinions and if we will believe him our Condemnation is decreed by the unanimous consent of all the most renowned Lawyers But because he is in possession of never reporting matters of fact in their true circumstances his bad memory ought to be a little helped and he made remember that they have indeed attempted some Universities and particular Doctours to maintain these Opinions of which some have fallen into the Trap and now detest their inconsiderate Lightness others have had a sharper sight and would give no Decision upon so indeterminate a fact and ill explicated The Question hath been proposed to them under borrowed names without reducing it to the terms of the true Fact whereof at present we are treating they never mentioned to them that Sovereignties were the thing in question whereof some are Fiefs of the Empire and others independent they concealed the Act and the Clauses of the Renunciation as well as its Causes and the End thereof they never knew that it was covenanted by a Treatie of Peace between two Kings agreed to by a Contract of Marriage inseparable from that of the Peace they were never told of the causes which France had given to the delay of the Payment of the Portion they took a great deal of care not to make it appear that the Goods which they pretended to were inseparably united among themselves by a Fundamental Law of the State and without furnishing them with any of those instructions which might have been usefull to them in the framing of a solid judgment they satisfie themselves with the meer questioning them upon the right of Devolution and with the inquiring of them whether a Father could alienate his Goods to the prejudice of a Right devolved to his Children If a Daughter might renounce a Succession which was fallen to her If a Minor might be relieved against an enormous Laesion If a Renunciation made purely in contemplation of the Portion ought to hold when the Portion hath not been assigned upon the Goods of the Father and that the very payment had not its effect and so of the rest They have answered to these Propositions according to the disposition of Common Law and the practice of the Local Customs But from whence comes it that the French Writers who have stuffed their works with so many unusefull Allegations durst never produce any of these Consultations which no doubt had they touched the Case would have been of more force then all that they have alledged in their works The cause of this silence is easily to be divined It is by reason that they could not spread them abroad without discovering at the same time the vain illusion of their captious proceeding and overturning all the strength of these same Authorities by detecting that they were all surreptitiously extorted But to put the business home to them we shall willingly consent that the fact be reduced to its true Species and that it be referred to the Judgment of the most famous Universities in Europe excepting onely those who by preoccupation of mind or by the common subjection of their Countrey are not in a condition to think that which they ought nor to utter ingenuously that which they think Let us conclude this Article then with a Dilemma
believing that the first will not have recourse to Arms for hindring their progress so long as they have any hopes to get it done by Negotiation and that the others terrified with the apprehension of the quick end of this War shall not dare to make use of any occasion which they will hold to be uncertain and staggering The first Argument is That at the instant when they profess to seek Peace they have laid an essential Obstacle in the way by concluding a League offensive with Portugal for ten years by the which they binde themselves not to treat unless the Portuguese may be intirely satisfied They are not ignorant how exorbitant the demands of that People are and that this is to touch Spain in the apple of the eye and put the same stop to the Peace which was the principal Difficultie in the Debates of the Pyrenean Treatie The same League carries as it is written from Lisbon that all the Harbours which the Portuguese shall take in Spain either upon the one or the other Sea shall be put into the power of France which directly corresponds to the Design which they have of late framed to make that Kingdom absolute Mistress * Of the Article England had need take care of the Trade All this hath no connexion with their Claim to Brabant and the other Provinces and if they had no other Design then to take possession of their pretended Goods without breaking the Peace they would not contrive the acquisition of Ports where they themselves confess that they have nothing to pretend The second is That at the same time when they protest they have no design to break the Peace they labour to destroy the Foundations of it and to take away all hopes of a Reconciliation by annulling the Queen's Renunciation upon which the whole Pyrenean Treaty doth so lean that in case this Basis shall be overturned of necessity the whole Fabrick must fall If this Renunciation doth not subsist there is no way left for an Accommodation nor means of finding any securitie necessary to it The Peace which shall be made cannot be but the seed of a new War it will be impossible to cut the evil by the root 'T is here where the Mediators shall find themselves puzzled and if all their Pretensions be granted then will they be absolute Masters of the Netherlands and in a condition to take possession by the same Title not onely of that part of Brabant of which the States of the Vnited Provinces stand possessed but also of all the rest of their Countreys as I shall make appear more at large in the Fifth Article If they adjudge unto them that part which we hold they give a previous Sentence against themselves and will be condemned by their own Decree But if France content it self with a part it will be needful that the Queen should pass a new Act of Renunciation touching all the remainder which according to their Principles must be subject to the same causes of Nullity that the first is if it be true that Princes can never lawfully renounce their pretended Rights And I do not see how they can finde new Clauses nor new Oaths to make this Act more irrevocable then that which they seek to destroy However though all they ask at present were granted them nothing could be solidly treated of because by annulling the Renunciation we should open a door unto them to bring in a new Pretension upon all the Monarchie and then must the Peace needs be as brittle as is the life of a young Infant who hath yet a thousand dangers to go through before he can reach to those years in which he shall be able to secure the Succession in his own Line and cut off the course of the vast hopes of those who build the design of an Vniversal Dominion upon his Death In a word it is superfluous to reason by Arguments when the things do speak of themselvs The most Christian King had the goodness to undeceive us in the vain hopes of a Peace by a Letter written by his order to the Marquess de la Fuente upon the Offer made by his Excellency the Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo in most respectful terms to enter into a Treatie of Accommodation and remit the business to the Arbitration of the neighbouring Princes by his Answer he doth not onely reject the Proposition and look upon it as an injury but be frames to himself a voluntary impossibilitie of a Peace which he establisheth upon the Reply of our Queen to the Marquess de la Fuente in prosecution of a Discourse which the Queen of France had slightly intimated to the said Marquess by way of Conversation and strives to settle upon so weak a ground-work not onely the Justice of his Arms but also an essential Obstacle to a Reconciliation By all these palpable Verities which cannot be called in question it is easie to discern That France imploying her endeavour to render the Peace impossible or unsure aims absolutely at the intire Destruction of a Monarchy which is the Bulwark of all the rest that she may attaque them with less trouble having thus beaten down their Flankers It is left to wise Politicians to make necessary reflexions upon a matter of such high concernment ARTICLE II. That the Entrie of the King of France into the Low-Countreys is a true Rupture THe French Academy hath of late taken a great deal of pains in the polishing of their Language and hath given it self the liberty to reform in it many words to adde some and to enrich it with many graceful expressions But I never could finde that ever it called War by the name of Peace The Latines indeed by an Ironical Figure have named War Bellum and it may be in imitation of them this ingenious Writer would make us believe that Hostilities are Gallantries and the preparation for a great Army but a Turnament Conjugium vocat hoc praetexit nomine culpam I desire very much that he would explain unto us what he means by the word Rupture and how he can reconcile a violent Intrusion by the power of men and Cannons with the due observation of a Treatie which in the first place doth prohibit all manner of such armed attempts and which is instituted to no other end but to hinder them I would know how he can make the Peace subsist with the most lamentable effects of War and how that by the onely defect of the formalitie of sending a Herauld at Arms to denounce it it loses all its bitterness and injustice For my own part who use to reason more dully I have always held that to be a Rupture which is inconsistent with the essence of Peace which overthrows the foundations and troubles all the harmony of it There are certain Attempts which may alter a Peace and yet not break it which be rather Contraventions then Infringings and which do not give the parties injured the right of Revenging themselves
to his Arbitration or at least for seeking his Interposition and laying open their Rights before him But far from all this they began with Leagues with Aids sent to the Portugueses with secret Practices amongst our People and a thousand unworthy Intrigues forerunners and evident discoveries of a formed Design of War and in place of all intimation or seeking after amicable ways they have contented themselves with a simple familiar Discourse which passed in Conversation between the Queen of France and the Marquess de la Fuente Here it is wherein evidently doth appear a proceeding full of Artifice which cannot tend but to two ends the one to have in time and place a fitting occasion to bring War upon us and in some kinde to justifie by that Demand the Violence which they did resolve to found upon our Refusal the other That they might be able to surprise us and make us neglect the care of our Defence and Safetie and might avoid those Obstacles which by the good offices of the neighbouring Princes and interessed in the Cause they foresaw would certainly have been employed from all parts to prevent a War from which they would not be diverted by any manner of Agreement They feared that if they had observed all the Formalities which I have above related they should have given us an Alarm out of season and have awakened us out of that profound Sleep into which our confidence in their Treaties and words had lulled us They judged reasonably enough that all the neighbour-States would sufficiently apprehend the Consequences of this War to make use or all their care and power to terminate this Difference by an Accommodation They saw that an express Declaration of their Design might open the eyes of all the World and that on the other part a sudden Invasion without any preceding Formalitie would bring an universal blame upon them and convict them of manifest Injustice They have chosen this weak middle betwixt those two extremes to throw in the aire an empty Proposition without matter and without form to the end they might take the advantage of our Answer when their business should suffer it knowing very well that upon such a weak ground we were not able to make any Reply to their full satisfaction They believed that by this cunning they should have wherewithal to convince us without giving us the Alarm and wherewith to prove their Moderation without being obliged to desist from their Violences But God is not so cheated nor men of sound understanding these are Spiders webs which are good for nothing but to catch flies Yet of those things do they make the Frontispice of their work and the Foundation of their Building they do move and bestir themselves upon them with that life which is so natural unto them imagining that having this Shield we shall not carry in a stroak upon them which they shall not be able to ward To judge well of the matter we must enter upon the truth of the Fact which the Author of these Libells falsifies in all its circumstances The very first words of his Preface contain a palpable Untruth which is A little after the deceased Queen-Mother had paid to the Memorie of the Catholick King her Brother all the Duties and all the Civilities which are usual in such occasions she sent to call the Marquess de la Fuente c. It is certain by the Relation of the Marquess de la Fuente and by the date of his Letters written to Spain that the Queen-Mother held this discourse with him on the 13. of August and all the world knows that the King died not till the 17. of the Month following 'T is a thing of bad presage to the success of this Writing that the first words of the Preface should begin with so notable a Lie which gives just cause to believe that the Conclusion of the same Work which promises to our people a Haven of Benedictions if they will come under their power shall be of the same nature and that the Epilogue will correspond to the Exordium by the just Conformitie which such a great Oratour without doubt ought to have observed in all the parts of a Piece which he began to meditate from the very day of the Peace since in effect he is not ashamed to avow that they did not consent to the Act of Renunciation but with a formed design to break it Thus all that he doth alledgin consequence of that Commission which the Queen-Mother gave to the Marquess de la Fuente to write to the Queen of Spain on this subject is but a weaving of the same Untruth since no body can be ignorant that the Queen had no hand in Business whilst the King lived and that she would by no means have intruded in a matter whereof she had no manner of knowledge and which was not then within the extent of her Sphere That he may not give himself the lie he continues still to accumulate Lies upon Lies The Discourse which the Queen-Mother held with the Marquess was altogether of another strain then that which he citeth This wise Princess who considered the Peace as her own work and who knew the unquietness of the French humor and the desire of Glory which boiled in the heart of her Son thought fit to declare confidently her thoughts of it to the Marquess de la Fuente that they might search joyntly for some means to stay his Impetuositie She ingenuously represented unto him the trouble which the bad Suggestions which were infused into her Son upon vain pretensions did occasion to her and she intreated him to advertise the King her Brother thereof that he might make such Reflections thereon as were necessary that she would wish that after he had given so much for the Peace he would yet yield in something to preserve it and stop the mouths of all such as carried on the King her Son to violent Resolutions that for her part she would inculcate all the Moderation that she did wish in him Thus did that Royal and prudent Princess speak and witnessed sufficiently by her discourse that she had in horrour a Pretension which she did not sustain but by the fear of a greater evil The Marquess de la Fuente did never charge himself with this Commission contrary to what this Author doth relate with the same fidelitie that he hath done all the rest for it is clear by the Relation which he sent into spain upon this subject and all those who are but a very little versed in the management of publick affairs will judge that he could not doe it without he had been ignorant of the Duty of an Embassadour which cannot be presumed of a Minister of so long experience and who deserves the general applause by his good behaviour in so many great Embassages He knew too well that being the Catholick King 's Minister he might not act as solicitor for the most Christian King that he could not enter
throughout the whole Dutchy Wamesius Kintschot Christin Mean These three conditions of the Right of Devolution are clearly proved in that learned and solid Treatise which the Counsellor Stockmans hath lately published on this Subject and all the Authors of the Country who have written upon it do unanimously agree with him therein As to the first Point that the Devolution is not a Succession it is easily proved by the Customs of the Places where this Right is in force and by the Effects both of the one and the other which are totally different Succession supposes Death and Devolution doth begin from the moment of the Dissolution of the first Marriage L. qui supustitis ff de acquir haered There can be no Succession to a living person that were to bury the Fathers before their decease and make Children succeed one another in the Father's life-time to change a Succession which is direct in its own nature into a collateral one The Grandchildren whose Father died before their Grandfather would be wholly excluded from the Inheritance for they cannot enter by way of direct Succession because it would be fallen to their Uncles or to their Aunts nor by collateral because they would be of an inferiour degree and that the Feodal Custom of Brabant doth not admit of Representation in indirect Successions so that if it were a true Succession it might happen that an Aunt would totally exclude the Son of her elder Brother which would overthrow the whole order of the Succession and the first Institution of the Fiefs of Brabant where the Males of the First Bed and their Descendents are always preferred to the Females It is to no purpose that the Authors of these Libells will make use upon this subject of some ill-conceived terms and improperly applied in some one of the Feodal Customs by which it seems that they give the name of Succession to Devolution for the same Feodal Customs of Brabant which he cites were never decreed nor approved and those which we find in print are for the most part but the Projects of the Lieutenant of the Fiefs of Brabant and of some Practitioners who have not reflected upon the force of the words but having been presented to the Governour to be examined and decreed the Approbation of them was refused in regard they were conceived in terms not very proper But however it be when the Law and Custome is contrary and that the intention of the Law or of the Custome is manifestly known 't is a ridiculous thing to prefer the words before the substance so much the more because the same Customs do explicate very clearly the Equivocation in other places In the XXV Article it is said that If the Fiefs come from the first deceased the Proprietie succeeds to the Children which evidently expresseth by this distinction that they do not succeed in the Proprietie of the Goods of the Survivor and that the one is Succession and the other Devolution In the XXXVII Article also it is said that Feodal Successors do not ascend but must always descend so that were the Devolution a Succession it would pass immediately unto the Children of the Second Bed in case those of the First die without Issue whereas 't is certain by the XXIII Article that they do return back to the Fathers or rather that they remain free and relieved of the band by which they were tied which is rather a Settling then a Return of the Proprietie Otherwise a great absurditie must follow which is That the father would succeed as representing his Son and so would be obliged to renew his Investiture and swear Homage anew which hath never been practised Although that the enacted Customes of Lovain speak very uncorrectedly and seem in some places to confound the Devolution and the Succession nevertheless it may be seen by the coherence that they ought to be understood with different relations and that the word Succession ought to be applied to an Estate already fallen by the death of one of the Parents and that of Devolution as relative to the Goods of the Survivors since the Custome in this place treats of the one and the other and in others it calls the Father the Proprietarie of the Vse or fruits and that they treat distinctly and in several Articles both of the Succession and Devolution as matters of a different nature in their Cause and in all their Effects This Question is so plainly handled in the Treatise of the Sieur Stockmans chap. 5. de Jure Devol that the Reader therein will finde wherewith to satisfie himself fully touching this particular if he hath the curiositie to run it over As for that which concerns the Proprietie the Children of the First Bed do not possess any effect thereof whilst either of the espoused are living as having neither the use of the fruit nor the testamentarie disposition nor the right of Alienation or of Engagement nor any other of those Actions which by Law do belong to the Proprietor and if they chance to die before their Father they fall from it totally So that all their Right consists in a simple assurance that those Goods shall not be alienated and in a hope to succeed one day thereunto in case they do out-live their Father If they were Proprietors they would be obliged by the same Custome Article LII to take the Investiture from the direct Lord during the life of their Father which hath never been practised The Father on the contrary hath all the effects of the Proprietie with this limitation onely that he cannot alienate to the prejudice of the Children of the First Bed that excepted he enjoys he possesses he governs he acts juridically in his proper name he is not bound to make any Inventory nor liable to give an Accompt and hath all the real Actions which of right cannot belong to a simple Usufructuarie and are necessarily annexed to the Propriety He is not so bridled but that the Alienations which he makes are valid in themselves and subsisting if the Children come to die before him though they be subject to Rescission if they survive him In a word the Proprietie by this Devolution cannot be attributed to the Children by any of the Titles of Law by which Domains are acquired they cannot pretend to it by way of Succession as I have already shewn the Devolution gives them not any effect nor any Title and the Father hath not lost it by any of the ways of Alienation which the Civil Laws have prescribed the Death of his Wife cannot take from him the Domain of his Goods L. nemo ff de Reg. Jur. which cannot be lost but by a voluntary act as of Donation Sale Cession or Crime Whence it ought to be concluded that the name of Proprietie without abusing the word cannot be given to that which hath neither the effects nor the cause thereof and the Custome cannot without injustice denude a Father absolutely of the
Discontents and Afflictions which may be considered and subsequently makes report of divers publick utilities which arise from this Agreement and places it as the essential Foundation of the Peace and of its continuance And to facilitate for the future the Alliances betwixt the two Crowns which otherwise the pretended Salique Law would render alwaies dangerous and not to be practised unless they had agreed amongst themselves upon this Remedie whereupon there are many things to be considered 1. That it is an Agreement made betwixt the two Kings for the good of their Estates that this Renunciation is relative to the V. and VI. Articles of the Treatie of Marriage which was concluded with the most Christian King wherein he intervened as the principal partie as is certain by the Narrative at the beginning of the said Deed. It appears also by the Obligation which he imposes upon himself to ratifie it because if he had not acted in this Renunciation but in the quality of a Husband and not of a partie promising and accepting in his own name he could not nor ought not to have ratified it but onely to have authorized it though he hath ratified it as the Authour himself doth acknowledge and that the Ratification of the Treatie of Peace did necessarily include all that to which it was relative Now it is uncontroverted that the two Kings by common consent at the desire of their People had power to derogate from Laws of private concernment in regard they made them and have the right of repealing them that the Kings of Spain and France for causes of less importance do not onely derogate but change every day their Constitutions and Laws and therefore that which they doe for the private respects of civil Justice they have much more power to doe for the common good of the State otherwise if they should not have the power to derogate from Laws to extinguish Actions and stop the Proceedings of civil Justice by publick Treaties they could grant no Amnesties nor hinder the Right of the Fiscall in the punishment of Crimes nor of private persons for the Restitution of what they have taken the one partie from the other nor impose silence to parties contending nor restore the Goods given upon just Confiscations nor other things of the like nature which fall out in all Pacifications and which make it appear that the necessity and the utility of the Publick good may derogate from Laws when it pleaseth the Sovereign As it is certain that they have had the power it is also clear by the same Instrument that it was their will and that such hath been their intention Without having regard to the said Laws Customs Ordinances and Dispositions by virtue whereof they have succeeded and do succeed to all the aforementioned Kingdomes c. And thereafter To which and every one of them their said Majesties ought to derogate in so farr as they shall be contrary c. And more below And that it is understood by the Approbation of this Treatie they do derogate and hold them to be derogated And in the V. Article it is said With Derogations and Abrogations of all and whatsoever Laws Vsages and Customs c. from which their Catholick and most Christian Majesties ought to derogate and shall be understood from this present to remain derogated from c. But that which is yet of more efficacie and more considerable is that in the Ratification of the Treatie of Peace on the part of the most Christian King this very Derogation is expressly contained Derogating to this end as we do derogate from all Laws Customs and Dispositions to the contrary 2. It is certain by the Authour of the Dialogues own confession that the most Christian King hath ratified this Agreement 't is in page 30. As to the Ratification of the most Christian King it might be of some consequence if there were not other Nullities in the Queen's Renunciation then the defect of the Authorization of the King her Husband Here he doth avow the Ratification though in the same passage he will needs make it pass for a simple Authorization but it is perspicuously seen by all the Clauses of this Instrument that it is an Agreement in which the most Christian King enters as the principal partie that the Renunciation of the Infanta hath its beginning and source from this Agreement to which she did willingly consent so that he must of necessity acknowledge either that the Kings of France have not the power to exempt themselves and free themselves from the Civil Laws in publick Treaties nor to hinder the effects of them in what concerns themselves which is directly against the uniform opinion of their Doctors and offends even common sense or that he grant that the most Christian King nor the Queen his Consort cannot make use to their own advantage of those Actions which Law might give them after they have derogated from them by a solemn Treatie Otherwise men must renounce the faith of Treaties and no Peace shall ever be secure if in it the Actions competent to Parties can by no means be extinguished and if still a gate be left open to the Exceptions in Law 3. That these Writers do suppose a false Principle that the Renunciation was made onely in contemplation of the Portion the Clauses above cited do evidently shew that they are mistaken Things must be looked upon in another light to judge soundly of them The Right of Succession was an essential Obstacle to the Marriage which is certain throughout the Text of the Renunciation The Marriage was a necessary means to the Peace I have already proved it by the same Instrument of Peace The onely remedy against all Pretensions was the Renunciation to conclude the Marriage the Obstacle was to be removed Let us acknowledge then that the Renunciation ought to hold the first place as the Dispositions ought to precede the Form that it is independent of the Portion as having different Causes and Ends that it ought to have been stipulated before the Marriage was ever spoken of or the Portion The whole Text of this Instrument shews that the Portion is in favour of the Marriage and the Renunciation doth regard the good of the two Monarchies the one being founded upon the love and natural obligation of Fathers and the other upon publick benefit The one is a pragmatick Sanction and the other not It is agreed that the King my Lord because and in respect of this Marriage and to the end that I might carrie to it my Portion and proper Goods hath promised that be will give me five hundred thousand Crowns It saith not that because and by virtue of the Renunciation five hundred thousand Crowns shall be given but in regard of the Marriage which supposes that the Impediment of State should be removed by the Renunciation and thus the Cause of the assignation of the Portion is the Marriage the End that she may carry her Portion
read any thing more cold nor weak then the Answer which was long since published on the behalf of France against this solid Writing It is filled with an unusefull heap of words shuns the Lists everywhere strays from the Question omits the principal Objections and supposes the Point still in controversie to be a thing already proved It inlarges it self into great complaints because by this Writing it appears as if people would doubt that the most Christian King had a design to Invade the Circle of Burgundie They could not more palpablie manifest the Injustice of this War then by taking for an Injurie the bare Suspicion which we conceived thereof But what will he say at present when all Europe sees that our Fears were a prudent Foresight and that the Event hath verified our Conjectures Can he to day make that pass for an act of Justice which he detested before as an Attempt which we could not so much as foresee without offending them Will he not blush for shame at the Exclamation which he hath made Aut quasi Christianissima Regia Majestas in animo haberet eundem Circulum denuo Armis aggredi invadere It was then a Crime but to think that this could happen and now it is a greater it seems with them to wonder that it is come to pass But in the end no man doubts but that the Circle of Burgundie is a Member of the Empire the Authour of this Answer grants it to be so himself and thus dispenses with my pains to prove it He knoweth also that as such it is obliged to assist the Body in case of necessitie and all the Members of the Empire and to furnish its proportion of the Contributions which are necessary to the Defence thereof which the King hath exactly and superabundantly accomplished on all sorts of occasions both before and after the Treatie of Munster And by the rule of Law he that is obliged to all the Charges ought likewise to participate of all the Advantages otherwise the Union of this Circle with the Empire would be a Leonine Societie All the World knows that this Warrantie is reciprocall and that it must equally hold on both sides so that he who is bound to succour the Empire against all and on all manner of occasions ought also to receive the mutual Assistance of the Empire against all those who do invade him It is likewise certain that by the Treatie of Munster it is included in that Peace as a Circle of the Empire and that by this inclusion it ought to enjoy all the Rights and Prerogatives which appertain to the other Circles and all the effects of the Peace by which the common and reciprocal Defence is established Against which they have nothing to oppose but an Article ill understood and worse interpreted of the Treatie of Munster de mutuis Hostibus non juvandis by which the Empire and France do reciprocally oblige themselves not to give any Assistance to their respective Enemies France hath directly contravened this Article by the Assistance which she sent against the Bishop of Munster which effectually did enter into the Lands of the Empire and by the Counsel she gave to reduce this Bishoprick into Ashes But for the better understanding of this Article we must observe that it is concluded betwixt the Bodie of the Empire indivisibly on the one part France on the other which do reciprocally promise not to assist the Enemies of each other Here the Empire with all its Members is reckoned but one Partie contracting and France the other so that when it is said that it shall not assist the Enemies of France it should be understood of Enemies abroad and cannot concern the Members of the Empire which in one Body are the same Parties which have treated with her and to which all the Body owes defence by an original natural and undispensable obligation Were this otherwise understood it might be inferred by the same Argument that in case the Empire did assault any Province belonging to the Crown of France the other Provinces of the same Realm could not go to their Assistance without violating the Article de non juvandis Hostibus If France doth replie that those Provinces make up but one Kingdom we shall also say that the Ten Circles do constitute but one Empire so that when France hath War with any one Circle of the Empire it is a War made against the whole Body And the word mutui hostes cannot be interpreted but of Strangers else the Body of the Empire had obliged it self not to assist its Members against France and by consequence to abandon it self and to see it self dismembred by parcells while the Parts of this great Body should not dare to stretch forth their hands to the help of one another But in this case it is not to give Assistance to the Enemies of France but it is to defend the Empire against France which doth invade it If this Clause de mutuis Hostibus non juvandis be universal and do comprehend all those with whom France hath any debate it would operate against all the other Circles as well as that of Burgundie and there shall be no Member of the Empire which may hope for any Relief from the other Circles in opposition to the Invasions of France But if they will apply it particularly to the Circle of Burgundie they must prove by the same Instrument of Peace that although it be a Member of the Empire it is of the number of those Enemies which it cannot assist against France and that the other Circles are excepted out of this general Rule or that they have some particular Privilege above that of Burgundie But neither the Treatie of Peace nor the Imperial Constitutions making it to be in a worse condition then the others and on the contrary including it in the same Peace and the same Rights which the other Circles do enjoy it follows that the Clause de non juvandis Hostibus ought to be extended to the Ten Circles or that it ought not to comprehend that of Burgundie The Imperial Capitulation which is formed upon the Idea of the same Treatie of Peace doth yet more clearly explicate all the Doubts which may be raised touching a truth so palpable by the reservation of the Article of Warrantie contained in the Instrument of Peace which shews clearly that the Obligation not to assist the Enemies of France cannot derogate from that which all the Circles of the Empire have reciprocally to assist each other All that the Writer of France alledges against this in his Answer is but a frothed Cream and is so strongly refuted in the Replie which of late hath come to light that it were lost labour to endeavour to give it any farther clearing The Electors Princes and States of the Empire are fully persuaded of these Truths they are not unsensible of the Contempt done to their Jurisdiction openly violated by this Attempt they are not blind to the Dangers which threaten them by our Oppression but as they never go from the ways of Moderation they would not imitate France by beginning after their Example the Process by the Execution judging that it behoved them to try the means of Gentleness Reason and Remonstrances first before they should recurre to the last remedie But they are too sharp-sighted to suffer themselves to be dazled any longer with void and undetermined Answers by which France under the general expression of a seeming desire of Peace obstructs all the passages by which they might enter to an exact discussing of the Business In effect to the Suspension of Arms which they have proposed they have had no Return but that of a disdainful Refusal to the Mediation which they offered a doubtful Hope and to the Time and Place of the Treatie a Silence full of Artifice They will see full Commissions before they declare themselves as to other circumstances which according to the order of all Treaties necessarily ought to precede the sending of Plenipotentiaries They take great care to persuade that our Queen hath cut off all kind of approches to an Accommodation They do of purpose conceal from their Deputies her last Answer by which she offers to send her Embassadors to the place which shall be agreed on and to refer all to the Arbitration of the Mediators which should be chosen They will have nothing of all this a full Power must needs precede without knowing whither the Plenipotentiaries shall be sent or to whom they will refer themselves So soon as this shall be consigned they 'l form Scruples upon every syllable if there wants onely a Comma Spain shall be presently judged as an enemie to the Peace In the mean time they go on always gaining ground they render from day to day the Calamitie more incurable and whilst they labour by this Juggling to stop the just Assistance of the Empire and of the other Princes the progress of their Arms advances without check and they labour to put themselves in a condition to render all those Helps unprofitable which justly we may expect and to deal so that our Friends shall not be undeceived till their Succours can no longer hinder our Ruine The onely Remedie is quickly to imbrace Maximes proper for countermining theirs They have a Kingdome united in all the Parts of it let us unite our Affections and Powers Their Quietness depends upon our Trouble let us seek our Safetie by the abating of their Pride They act by way of Fact let us repell Force by Force They dallie with us by vain hopes of Peace let us put our selves in a condition to make them desire it seriously In a word they have a design upon us all let us make then of this Cause a Common Interest and not anchor all our Deliverie upon the favour of the Cyclop which was indeed profitable to Vlysses but by a good fortune which in reason he ought not to have expected FINIS