force of a Custome among them and being onely a particular Right it can neither tie the Prince nor the Sovereignty because it comes but from a simple Custome and Consent of the Subjects who have no Jurisdiction over the Superiour Power So that to judge of the Right of Succession of the Lording Fief one must look into the first Original thereof and into its proper nature independently of all that is inferiour to it If we consider the principal End of this ordinary Custome which preferrs the Males before the Females even in the Succession of particular Fiefs we shall find that it is for the conservation of Noble Families for fear their Estates should pass to and be confounded in some other House to the prejudice of them who are able to uphold the Splendour maintain the Name and perpetuate the Line of them Though this benefit in some sort do redound to the good of the State it is but by an indirect reflexion and by the relation of the private to the publick and 't is for this that it may be derogated from in consideration of another private good if it be esteemed to be equal or of greater importance then the other But the conservation of Sovereignties is a good which directly concerns the State against which no private Reason can prevail otherwise what Disorder would it be in the World if we did see Sovereignties liable to the change of Masters every moment and pass under another Dominion How many causes of War and Revolutions would arise from such a strange Constitution which could not but offend all Laws and good Politie How unworthy a spectacle must this be and what an heart-breaking to faithfull Subjects to see their Princes and all their Line reduced to povertie whilst a Daughter should elevate to their Throne some Stranger-Prince If these inconveniences be compared with the particular good which arises from the Devolution it will be found that the one is but an Atome in comparison of the other and that there is no kind of appearance that the very People though it had been in their power would ever have been such enemies to themselves as to have exposed themselves to all these dangers by subjecting their Prince to their Custome and taken pleasure to live under a Dominion suspended in the Air and exposed to all Winds On the contrary Sovereigns in one thing seem to be in a worse condition then private persons because in the greatest part of States which are well governed they cannot alienate any parcell of their Dominions they are in some kind Slaves to the Publick good they cannot doe advantage to a younger Brother to the prejudice of the Elder and are ordinarily so tied to the regular order of Succession which preferrs the Males and the Eldest that they cannot follow the motions of their Affection to the prejudice of this Rule which the Safety of the State renders not to be dispensed with how then can it be overthrown and destroyed by a local Custome instituted to an End which cannot be put in the balance with the Utilitic which proceeds from this publick Law In effect If we look upon the order of the Successions of the Dukes of Brabant and of the Princes of the other Provinces in the Netherlands it will be found that they have alwaies descended from Father to Son as long as that could be had and that in no case they have been divided nor shared among many Children though there have been often sundry Males of the same Bed Butkens pag. 107 113 133 204 270 232 c. As is seen in Godfrey the First who left two Sons of his first Marriage Godfrey and Henry Godfrey his Son succeeded singlie to the Dutchie and of three Sons which he had Godfrey the Elder styled the Third succeeded alone he had two Sons by his first Wife Henry and Albert the Elder onely succeeded to the Dutchy as Henry the Third had done and the same throughout the whole Succession From whence I draw two Consequences One That the Sovereign Fief is by its nature indivisible which shews that the principal end is to conserve it entire in the Family which were unusefull if it must descend to the Daughters of the First Bed to the exclusion of the Males for in this case it would import very little that it were dismembred and it would be more just and more covenient to divide it at least among the Children of the same Bed The other is That by this Indivisibilitie it is different from particular Fiefs which according to the Feodal Customs are partable beyond the Forrest at the choice of the Eldest and on this side though there were but one Fief the Eldest hath but two Thirds and the rest belongs to the Brothers excepting to the Eldest the Castle and a Capon 's flight which being unpracticable in a Sovereign Fief Chap. 21. of the Feodal Customs of Brabant 't is evident that there is a manifest difference and that the one hath for its end onely the particular good of Families and the other the good of the State which chiefly consists in keeping the Sovereignty as long as is possible in the same Line that it may not be exposed to continual Changes So that being of a different nature we cannot draw any consequence from the Fief to the Crown nor subject the Lording Fief to the Local Customs which be of another nature and for other ends This difference is the more remarkable by reason that the subservient Fiefs which Princes do possess are of another nature and subject to other Laws then the Sovereigntie and do not depend of one and the same Jurisdiction as is to be seen in Butkens in the Charters of the year 1222. And it is out of doubt that these may be divided and the other not as is clear by the XXI Article it self which I cited before and even the Customs of Lovain were decreed with this Clause Without prejudice to the Rights and the Superiorities of the King Which clearly demonstrates that in the toleration or approbation of these particular Customs the Sovereigns never meant to subject their Sovereignties and that the Consequence which they draw from the one to the other cannot be of validitie betwixt two such disproportionate things In the Customs of Brabant and the other Provinces which the King hath approved this Reservation is ordinarily found Without prejudice to our Rights and Authorities A notable difference is yet to be observed here which is that private persons may derogate and do daily derogate from the Devolution by their Treaties of Marriage or by Testaments to preserve the free disposition of their Goods to themselves and to hinder the Daughters of the First Bed from coming to exclude the Sons of the Second which Princes have never practised though much more concerned in conserving their Successions in the Masculine Line and would not have failed to use those Precautions as well as private persons do against this
hinder that all these Estates which the want of Representation exposed to too frequent Changes should not be so easily separated by the diversitie of Customs We have now no more need of witnesses habemus fatentem reum and we ought also to inferr thereupon that the Right of Devolution being much more subject to produce these over frequent Changes then the want of Representation since that the Sanction would introduce the latter for this cause onely it is not credible that its intention was that the Prince should be subject to the other Pâ—g 163. being the same Reason doth more powerfully serve to destroy the Devolution in the Sovereign Succession then it doth to establish the Representation in it In fine they stumble at every step and it would require an Herculean pains to help them up again every time that they fall It seems that they have had no other care but to make up a heap of Arguments without discretion and without choice to dazle rather then to persuade and to obtain by their number that which they can never hope for from the strength of their Reasons The Authour of the Rights of the Queen follows the same track and loses himself in his own Labyrinth who is not ashamed to utter this Proposition That if the Prince be ancienter then the Custome Fol. 168. nothing can be more glorious for him then to submit himself unto it c. since it is certain that in this case the Custome is but an Emanation of the particular practice of the Sovereign Familie Here are as many Errours as words It is certain that most of the Customs take their beginning from the desire of the People and from their private advantage they do frame to themselves their own Custome of which afterwards they desire the Prince's Approbation who grants or refuses it as he thinks good but by approving it he doth not subject himself to it Nor is it less evident that divers Customs are convenient for the People which would be most prejudicial to Sovereign Families as in effect that of the Devolution would be It is certain likewise that if the Prince be ancienter then the Custome he hath already the Right and the Form of his Succession regulated before the Custome and this Regulation being a Sovereign Law can never be altered by a particular and inferiour Constitution He doth profess in another place Pag. 166. that the Sovereignties have particular attributes which do distinguish them from other Goods And in what ought they to be more distinguished then in that which regards the Succession which imports more to the subsistence of Sovereignties then any other thing He himself doth acknowledge it in the same page as their being Independents and yet notwithstanding he will make them to depend upon the Custome Vnalienables yet he will subject them to a Right which at every moment would be the occasion of their Alienation and Indivisibles yet he denies that the Emperour Charles the Vth had any power to unite them together He adds that notwithstanding this difference they have many things common I do agree with him but that which they may have of common doth not proceed from the particular Custome The Comparison of which he makes use to prove it is ravishing and marvellously well applied 't is of a Man who participates together both of the Animal and Reasonable nature See then according to my apprehension how he pretends thereupon to form his Argument As Man though superiour to Animals doth participate of their Nature and hath something in him which is common to them so the Prince notwithstanding he is elevated above the People yet doth not cease to be subject to their Local Customs Risum teneatis Amici But to demonstrate by this Principle that the Prince is subject to Local Customs we must by a Moral which is altogether new establish this foundation That the Senses ought to give law to Reason and that the Sensual appetite must govern the Will otherwise all this discourse would prove nothing this strange Doctrine would make all the Schools rage and would not take but among the false Sectators and the bad Interpreters of Epicure Let us say then the better to conform our selves to a more regular prudence that if Man in some occasions ought to raise himself above the Senses and free himself from the subjection of the inferiour part it is principally in those Actions wherein the eternal Succession is concerned which is his principal and last End and that to descend by this Rule from the moral to the politick part it must be concluded that there is no case wherein the Sovereign ought to be more independent of popular Customs then in those of the Sovereign Successions which ought to constitute the Felicitie of the State and to establish a little kind of Eternity in his Familie But I perceive that I my self do goe astray by playing the Philosopher with these Sophisters and that I depart insensibly from my first design of destroying their Maximes in one bulk without tying my self to every parcel of their works Let us pass then to the second Rule by which those Sovereign Successions are to be measured which do hold of the Empire to wit by the usual Custome in the Imperial Fiefs It was never heard of in the Empire that any Sovereign Fief should be regulated by the Local Customs that it should be subject to the Right of Devolution and even the greatest part do totally exclude Daughters and pass to the Collateral Lines in defect of Heirs-male I have already shewn that the Cause and the principal End of such Successions is an essential Reason of State which absolutely requires for the good of the People and the conservation of great Families that the Sovereignties should be maintained as long as possibly may be in the same Line and that the practice of the contrary would expose the States to continual Revolutions that this End is incomparably more noble more elevated and more necessary then that which doth preferr in some places among private persons the Daughters of the First Bed before the Males of the Second that the Reasons which in some sort may make this Custome tolerable among the Subjects doth no ways concern the Prince nor the Sovereignty that Second Marriages which be oftentimes the cause of the ruine of private Families are ordinarily the prop and sustentation of Princes Houses that that which others doe voluntarily with an intemperate Incontinencie these are obliged to doe it by an absolute necessity for the good of the State and their Family that the Reasons which have given occasion to this Custome have no manner of relation to the Sovereigntie from whence it must be concluded that the Custome can take no place in the case where all the causes for which it was introduced cannot concurr and where all the advantages which arise from it are counterbalanced by greater Inconveniences It remains to see what was the ancient
prescribe unto it self by the will or permission either express or tacite of their Sovereigns I have besides observed so many evident Falshoods in the matter of Fact so many insupportable Invectives against the Person of the * PHILIP the Fourth late King of most Glorious Memory so great a number of malicious Artifices to pervert the people so many hyperbolical Exaggerations to cast dust in the eyes of the neighbouring Princes and so many pernicious Maxims which draw along after them a train of Consequences most dangerous for all Christendome that I had a great deal of difficultie to conceive how people who make profession of Learning and Knowledge of the Affairs of the World durst expose to publick censure things so ill digested which hath the more encouraged me to undertake this Work by reason that I foresee how much it imports not to suffer a boldness which so freely abuses the patience of the Readers to pass unchastised and the Interest which all States have in this Affair makes me assuredly believe that I do plead in this the Cause of the whole World It is I confess a matter of trouble to see my self obliged to reduce to the terms of litigious pleading a Difference between Sovereign Princes so solemnly decided by a publick Treatie upon the Faith whereof all Christendome did solely found their Quiet But as a good Cause fears no Judge nor a good Conscience any kind of Censure I will freely enter the Lists and shall be overjoyed to have as many Witnesses of the Justice of our Cause as there be reasonable and disinteressed persons in the World Though we cannot doubt of the Approbation which the most Christian King hath given to those injurious Writings I cannot yet be persuaded that he ever took the pains to reade them over and will rather believe to his honour that his weighty Affairs and his great application to this loftie Arming have so taken up all his time that he had none to spare to cast his eyes upon works which have so little sympathy with his Genius and Qualitie It is much easier to believe that trusting in this to the faith of others he hath abandoned himself to his natural propension to immortalize his name by Arms and Conquests and to the Suggestions of those who desire nothing more then to see him incumbred abroad for their self-ends In effect he hath too much Generosity and Love for the Queen his Consort to suffer that any should so unworthily defame the Reputation of his Father-in-Law he is too much concerned in the common Cause of Kings to endure that his Scribblers should attempt upon Royal persons he hath too much Justice to permit that they should make the most tender Father and best of Kings pass for a Tyrant constraining his Daughter by a barbarous Disinheriting her or a Cheater who assigned her onely an Imaginary Portion he hath too great a minde to approve of trifling upon Jewels or to desire that an accompt by way of Inventory should be given him of all the Knacks which belonged to the Queen his Mother-in-Law and that all the Earth should be alarmed about a Domestick concernment which the relations of the parties would decide without noise amongst mean Citizens he knows that the Bounty of the King his Father-in-Law towards a Princess whom he loved more then himself did not restrain it self to Notaries Clausules that both before and after the Marriage he ceased not to load her with his Benefits and that he hath freely bestowed his Provinces and Dominions to set upon her Head one of the fairest Crowns in the World In fine he hath too much Prudence and love for Truth ever to consent to the publication of so many false Allegations so inconsiderately packed together one upon the back of another not questioning at all but if that he had attentively considered them they would have touched him with just indignation against those who have so impudently abused his Name as to ingage maliciously his Reputation and his Arms in an Enterprise so ill grounded Which makes me hope that having established his Majestie 's Rights upon unquestionable Foundations the soliditie of our Reasons will not onely conduce to fortifie the People and perswade the neighbour-Princes but even pierce the heart of the most Christian King and that yielding to the strength of their Evidence he will resolve henceforwards to propose juster and more plausible matters to hiâ—self whereby to make his Name famous when in the unworthy Oppression of a Pupill King or at least that he will contrive sweeter and more honest ways in order to his full information But if by secret Judgments of God we cannot obtain by this means that which we ought to promise to our selves from the Prudence and the Equitie of so Great a King I shall yet have this satisfaction to have omitted nothing on my part that might contribute towards the dissipation of this Tempest which threatens all Christendome and having overcome by Reasons we hope that the Arbiter of Sovereigns and supreme Protector of Justice will not let us sink under the weight of his Arms. To make fully known in the eye of the Sun the Deformitie and bad Connexion of those seditious Writings it would be necessary to anatomize them and examine every piece apart But as that design would engage me to a large Volume and that time for the present is too precious I have thought that it should now suffice to collect onely the principal Points to destroy their Grounds and establish contrary Foundations and to goe without stopping at a thousand Superfluities which they have alledged out of all season onely to make the bulk of their Books bigger and to embroil the minde of the Reader directly to the substance and the heart of the Difficulty in question This shall be my endeavour and in this I require in the Readers an attention void of interest if yet they can be without interest in a Cause which so nearly toucheth them by an inevitable reflexion Though I have proposed to my self in this Writing all the Moderation and Sweetnesse which decency and inclination towards Peace doth require yet the matter is of it self so very sharp that it is almost impossible to give it a form that shall not participate of its roughneâ—se It 's here intended to make the whole World see That a War is unjust the Ground of it ruinous the Reasons for it vain Pretexts That the Apparences cover vast Designs That the Allegations are false the Proceedings violent the Ends naught and the Consequences dangerous The necessitie of a just Defence doth oblige us to bring to light all these Truths and I defie the most dexterous Pens to be able to express them in terms void of some Bitterness or to apply the Razor to the bottome of the Wound without Pain to the Patient I wish I were able to make things understood without naming them and to colour them with obliging terms but this cannot be done
by Arms but onely to pretend Reparation by more gentle means The Turks do not esteem to be a Rupture the Incursions which are made by the one or the other partie in times of Peace provided they be not accompanied with Infantry and Cannon But when one doth act by open force with the full bodies of an Army followed with all the Train necessary for great Enterprizes that Subjects are solicited to rebell against their Prince and that they are compelled under the penalty of the Confiscation of their Goods to take an unjust Oath without processe and without forme of Law I do avow that I am ignorant what either Peace War Treaties or Ruptures are if all these things can have any compatibilitie together at the same time It is a new knowledge in Law whereof the Ancients were ignorant who have left us an Instruction totally opposite to this doctrine Philo de Legious Hostes non solùm existimantur qui jam navali aut terrestri praelio certant sed pro talibus habendi qui machinas admovent portubus aut moenibus etiamsi nondum pugnam incipiunt But that we may be the more able to judge in this business it is necessary that we examine all the terms of the Treatie of Peace and consider the nature the effects and the ends of the same to conclude that if all those be destroyed by this Invasion it cannot be called by any other name then by that of a manifest Rupture The motive Cause of the Peace was The desire of the good quiet and ease of their good Subjects The Object was To put a period to so many mischiefs The Effect To forget and extinguish all the causes and motives of the Warrs past and to establish a sincere entire and durable Peace betwixt them and their Successors All these are overthrown by this present Attempt which doth trouble the good and tranquillity of the people renew the publick misfortunes rekindle and resuscitate all the causes and motives of the Warrs past and raise new ones I do not see how one can conceive that Peace should subsist with an Invasion which ruines it in its Cause in its Ends and in all its Effects Moreover if the Entry of the most Christian King into these Provinces be but a simple taking of possession yet is it altogether illegal contrary to the Laws of Nations and to the customes and practice of the Civil and Municipal Laws as I will make appear in the Article following and what colour soever these do put upon it it cannot pass but for the way of Fact which is never permitted except by the Law of War So that by endeavouring to take away the name of War from this Invasion they do deprive it of that Veil which was able to cover it at least with the false appearance of the Right of Arms and manifestly conclude that if it be not a Rupture 't is a violent Intrusion if it be not a War 't is a Depredation and Piracie and if it be not an infringing of the Peace it is an unjust Attempt which gives a shock to all Laws and Forms Thus are the French intangled in their own Nets and thinking to make their Cause plausible or less odious by a Subtiltie which hath neither body nor substance they destroy the principal Foundation of it and take from themselves the means of establishing their Conquest upon the right of War by declaring that they will Conquer without breaking the Peace L. Hostes de vern signif Hostes sunt qui nobis aut quibus nos publicè Bellum decernimus caeteri Latrones aut Praedones sunt We do ordinarily distinguish betwixt Contravention Infringing and Rupture The first is but an Abuse either in action or omission contrary to some particular Condition which hinders not the existence of a Treatie in its integritie and onely affords the parties concerned a right to pretend that the Dammage be repaired The second shocks the substance of the Peace overthrows the Ground-work of it and gives a right to pursue satisfaction by Arms if it cannot be obtained by any other way The third consists simply in those acts of Hostilitie which are incompatible with Peace which is in one word when one pursues his Right by force And War according to the opinion of Civilians is nothing else but A Contention by strength of hands and by violence of Arms. Others take the word Rupture more at large and extend it to three cases The first to every Act which is against the nature and ends of Peace the second to the committing or omitting of something which is contrary to the express tenour of the Treatie the third to the making of some Attempt which brings Consequences along with it incompatible with all that can be understood by the name of Peace Grotius lib. 3. cap. 20. These three Conditions meet here there is open Force there is an express Contravention to the most essential Articles and Consequences which induce an irreparable Dammage The Contravention to the Treatie on the part of France may evidently be proved by a multitude of Acts repugnant to the sinceritie of that Friendship which the two Kings promised each other which is the chief End of this Peace and which overthrows the Conditions agreed on betwixt them The secret practices both within and without the Realm have never ceased since the Peace thus to keep the Monarchy at a check and to raise enemies and enviers to it from all parts The Portugueses have almost totally subsisted ever since upon the provision of Corn which hath been sent them out of France and in all the Debates which have happened either touching the Execution or the Interpretation of the Treatie or the Purchase of Dunkirk they have alwaies alledged unto us their Will in place of all other Reason offering to give us the Law even in our own houses and to forbid the reparation even of our own Chanells so that upon the least difference wherein we did not yield unto them without reply whatever they asked they have presently returned the bargain in our hand If any Leagues were proposed for our Defence onely instantly they thundred out against us menaces of War which was a word so frequently in the mouth of the Archbishop of Ambrun that upon business of no value and between private persons he instantly made a publick concernment In fine they have made use with so much exorbitancie of the strong Inclination which they observed in us for the preservation of Peace that they have still imployed upon the slightest occasions the Scare-crow of War thinking thereby to pull from us all that their humour made them desire Though our condition were very unfortunate to live in this continual Disquiet to see the Sword alwaies hanging over our heads and our Repose tied to so small a thread yet the remembrance of our former Sufferings and the apprehension of what might come hereafter made us preferre an uncertain and tottering Rest before those
without destroying the Substance and this Mask of words would pass for a jearing sharper then single Expressions I beseech the Reader to be persuaded that my onely drift is to speak of Things without touching of Persons and if my Subject doth forcibly draw me into complaints and some reproches I do here solemnly protest That I pretend the most Christian King 's Sacred Person to be excepted and that I do ascribe all the Evils which are intended towards us onely to those mean Incendiarie Writers who out of a desire of Noveltie and perhaps with purposes more dangerous to their own King then to ourselves have so lightly and unseasonably sounded to horse THE CONTENTS I. Of the Ends which France doth propose unto it self in this War and in these Libells II. That the Entry of the King of France into the Estates of the Catholick King in the Low Countries is an evident Rupture III. That this Rupture is unjust admitting the Right of the Queen of France were well founded IV. That the Renunciation of the French Queen is just irrevocable necessary and usefull to the Publick good nor contains in it self any cause of Nullitie or Laesion and that the Queen of France hath been duly Doted V. That the Succession of the Soveraigntie of the Dutchy of Brabant and the other Provinces which are specified in these Libells ought not to be regulated by the particular Customes VI. A Discourse of the Interest of the Christian Princes in this War and of the precise Obligation which the Estates of the Empire have to warrant the Circle of Burgundy THE BUCKLER OF STATE JVSTICE AGAINST The Design manifestly discovered of the Vniversal Monarchy under the vain pretext of the Queen of France her Pretensions ARTICLE I. Of the Ends which FRANCE proposeth unto it self in this War and in these Libells THE Author of these Libells employs a great deal more of care and art to colour the Designs of his Party then to establish the Grounds of his imaginary Right In this last his Pen is both dry and crawling In the other it doth spread it self with a pleasant stream of words into a Thousand superfluous expressions endeavouring as much as it can to present without discovery a false Light hoping to change the Nature of things by changing only their Names He extolls the love which his Master hath for Peace at the very instant when he is breaking it he complains at the same time when he strikes he takes away by violence when he asks he pleads and decides at once he requires Peace and brings War attaques without Rupture forces without constraint and plaies with so much contempt upon the Ignorance and Credulity which he supposes to be in the Judgment of his Readers that he will needs have the way of Fact to pass for Justice Violence for Moderation Usurpation for Title and Defence for a Crime and so he can but onely take away the odious name of War from the Attempt which Frame is now making he thinks that she may freely practise all manner of Hostilities under that of Peace Which is the effect of the excellent opinion they have of the abilities of all other Nations whom they esteem barbarous or simple enough to believe things of this nature and afterwards glory in their jesting according to their obliging custome of turning into ridiculous the most Illustrious Nations That they took us for Germans This dull conceit tends evidently unto two Ends The one to extenuate a little the ugliness of their Enterprise and the Scandal and Confusion which they foresee it will produce throughout all Europe and that they may make all the cares which we shall take for our Defence pass for as many Contraventions of the Peace and by this means get some pretext whereby either they may press their Allies to joyn their Arms to theirs in favour of their Design or else may one of these daies bring the War upon themselves for having failed in performing the Obligation of their League of Warrantie By which it is obvious to all sorts of capacities that the Absolute Empire which they do equally affect over their Friends Enemies makes them act so Magisterially both with the one and the other So that to keep Peace with them it is requisite to give them all that they require and to satisfie the Alliances made with them it 's necessary to help them to take all But to judge of the injustice of this Pretension it is sufficient to read over the Treatie of the Peace of the Empire in the Article of Warrantie and that of the League of the Rhine and then it will be clearly seen that the Obligation of reciprocal Succours doth extend no farther then to those Lands which France did possess in the Empire at the time when these Leagues were concluded that they do not reach any new Conquests or Claims and ought not to be understood but against Aggressours Else the Princes of the Empire had imposed an horrible Servitude on themselves to be the Ministers and Instruments of the Ambition of an Allie to inlarge his Limits at the price of their bloud and of their own safetie and to be bound to take arms into their hands as often as the Writers of France should think fit to put their hand to the pen to frame to their Crown some new Rights It is not enough to understand the cunning of the Ends of their proceeding but it concerns all the World to penetrate farther even into the bottome of their Designs If we will take it upon their faith they have no other End but an honest Accommodation with Spain They themselves invite Forreign Princes to intermeddle in it They protest that they will suffer themselves to be brought to moderate Conditions That they do make War against their stomachs That they would lay down their arms with pleasure That they would submit themselves to the Judgement of those who are willing to imploy their pains in it Let us see then whether their behaviour doth suit with their words Spectemur agendo All their Actions and Motions tend towards a vast and deep Design This proud arming this prodigious expence this excessive profusion in their forreign Negotiations this forwardness in making of Leagues to gain Ministers to keep them in business who may give them jealousie the reiterated instances and the large offers which they have tendred to the Swedes to embroil the Empire the extraordinary application to force the Polanders by corruption and violence to chuse a Successor contrary to their Fundamental Laws are proofs capable to convince the darkest understandings that all this immense Preparation of Arms and Intrigues hath something in it of greater extent then the bare Conquest of some Provinces which our over-much Credulity hath exposed to them as a prey and ends not in a simple desire of tearing away a few pieces of them by a Treatie These huge Mountains are not to bring forth Mice but to vomit out Flames as the
Vesuve to set the whole neighbouring Countries on fire The first * The Bishop of Rodes Governour of the most Christian King hath given him for a Modell the Life and Designs of his Grandfather Henry the Fourth as may be seen in the Book which he hath published This Prince as well by his own Genius as by the happy success of his first Undertakings hath relished such Instructions and hath solelie proposed to himself this Example for the Rule of his Actions The History of this Great King hath been his most ordinary study He hath in imitation of him taken great care to accumulate much Treasure sought for Alliances abroad and at length hath raised most powerfull Armies We must therefore conclude that he acts upon the very same Draughts and that all we see at present are but renewed Projects and the effects of those Impressions which he hath sucked in with his milk To draw the Consequences from these Principles we need onely reade the Memorials of Henry the Fourth those of the President Jannin and of the Bishop of Rodes and conclude that whatsoever that Potent King had conceived in his imagination this King intends to bring forth by the power of his Armies But as the desire of Glory hath no bounds and that his years and present condition put him in a capacitie to run a longer course then Henry the Great so we cannot reasonably expect that the swiftness of the Rhine shall be able to stop him His Writers have taken a great deal of pains to nourish him in these thoughts and as that sort of men have no other studie but to observe the weakness of their Prince the better to insinuate their Flatteries they have freely sacrificed their mercenarie Pens to tickle this natural desire of Glory which they have discovered in him The Rewards they have received are authentick marks of his Acceptance and this acknowledgment in a young spirit that believeth himself to be in a posture to execute all that pleaseth him and which hath drunk in this Maxime That to take possession by the Sword any Title is sufficient must needs be esteemed a dangerous forerunning Sentence against all those upon whom he shall believe that he hath any thing to pretend Which yet more clearly to make appear to us we onely need reade the printed Books which have lately been dedicated unto him and principally one above the rest which carries the Title of THE JVST PRETENSIONS OF THE KING OF FRANCE TO THE EMPIRE where having laid down for a Ground That the Dominions of Sovereign Princes have always been the Dominions and Conquests of their Estates and That the Dominions and Conquests of Crowns can neither be alienated nor prescribed he adds the two Articles following 1. That the greatest part of Germanie is the Patrimony and ancient Inheritance of French Princes 2. Charlemagne did possess Germanie as King of France and not as Emperour I leave to those who will vouchsafe to reade over this Treatise to form the Consequences from such Premisses If one may judge of what is to come by what is past all Europe will have cause enough to stand upon her guard if it doth but reflect upon the conduct of France since the close of the Pyrenean Peace till this minute Hardly did we see that Treatie established upon the most religious and inviolable Laws that humane Prudence could devise when presently upon a small punctilio of difference for the precedency of Embassadors which had been always in dispute and was left undecided by the Peace they proceeded to the uttermost extremities against a Father-in-Law at the same time when they suffered without murmuring the unheard-of Indignities which the Grand Vizier at Constantinople caused to be committed against the Royal Person of the most Christian King in that of his Embassador and when they did admit without taking the least offence thereat the Competition for place betwixt the Swedish Embassadors and theirs which is so much the more remarkable that even in the Pyrenean Treatie the two Crowns marched equally hand in hand together and that in one of the Instruments thereof Spain was the first nominated and in the other France Why then did they conclude the Peace with this Equalitie if they were resolved to break it afterwards upon the point of Competition Which makes it evidently seen that from the very day of the Peace they have always watched for the occasions of War and concluded this Treatie onely to take a little breath to settle their Revenues at home and make an end of reducing their people under the yoak The Bonesires which were every where kindled for joy of the Peace were not quite extinguished when an evident breach of the Treatie was seen by the Succours which France sent into Portugal at the beginning under the name of the Marshal of Turenne and a little while after without any kind of disguise A Sedition which happened at Rome to the great displeasure of the Pope by the Souldiers who were provoked with an infinity of Insolencies committed by the French Embassador's Familie The Duke of Creqny was near putting all Italy again into Combustion had not the tears of his Holiness stopt it by sacrificing his own Kindred and erecting a Pyramide to France for an unworthy Trophie of the spoils of the glory of the Vicarie of Jesus Christ and the common Father of whom they style themselves the Eldest Sons A little after they obliged the Duke Charles of Lorrain to sell them his Dutchy to the prejudice of the lawful Successor and the Contract not being valid they forced him with violence to put the onely place which was left him into their hands by means whereof revoking their Bargain they got the thing without paying the price The Bishop of Munster who was included in the League of the Rhine seeing himself attaqued in the Empire by the States of Holland in vain implored their assistance by virtue of the Warrantie but when he began to resent it he was straight assaulted by the French Troups and if his own Enemies had not shewn more moderation towards him then their Allies his Countrey which is of the Patrimony of the Church had been at present totally reduced into Ashes The War of England against the States of the Vnited Provinces which was raised by the French practices and fomented by their industry in giving the counterpoise to him who for the time appeared the weaker hath sufficiently instructed all the World that the Game of France is to depress all Powers which are capable of obstructing the torrent of their Enterprizes But to stray no farther from the matter which I have in hand I will be contented to note onely two plain Arguments which evidently prove that their Design is to drive on their Conquests as far as ever the fortune of War will suffer them and that those Overtures of Peace which they do make are but to amuse the neighbouring Princes and to bridle their own Subjects
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
Diet. General Diet. Even they who have carried Arms against the Empire have never been condemned nor exposed to the Imperial Outlawrie but according to the forms of Justice This course is so regulated and so confirmed by Custom that amongst so many Differences of which Germanie is full and in the numberless multitude of noble Families which compose this great Body not so much as one is to be seen which hath strayed from this High-way without punishment France alone which is yet but upon the Threshold of the Door will already command within the House and without any form of Process erects to herself a Tribunal of her Throne Advocates of her Army and Judges of her own Power What can the Empire expect from her Submission when she is Mistress if she make such use of it when she is but a Pretender And how should one promise to himself the Fealtie of Vassalage from those who commit an act of Felony to acquire it and will not enter but by the oppression of Laws and Justice From all these Principles which are clearer then the day this Conclusion may be drawn That the Oath and the Acknowledgement which they exact from his Catholick Majestie 's Subjects is a Seditious practice contrary to the Right of Nations which shocks both their Duty and their Consciences and which no body can take without making themselves guilty of a Crime against God of Rebellion against their Prince and of Baseness as to themselves though we should continue still in the supposition that the Pretension of the most Christian King were equitable I shall prove this by five convincing Reasons The first is That they are at present tied to the King of Spain by a solemn Oath with which they cannot dispense of themselves The second is That this Oath is valid and lawfull being founded upon the authentick Titles of the perpetual order of the Succession of their Dutchie upon the Imperial Investiture upon the Queen's Renunciation upon the Pyrenean Treatie and upon the Testament of the late King The third is That it hath been tendred since the Case of the pretended Devolution happened without any Opposition made by the most Christian King or Protestation to the contrary which might have put them into the least doubt of the validity of their Oath And in such like publick Acts which are of consequence the ordinary Rule is Qui tacet consentit The fourth is Because there is neither previous Judgment nor Sentence to the contrary which can dispense with them in their natural Obligation The fifth is That what Pretension soever may be moved against a Prince that is in actual possession the Subjects are not Judges in this Cause but are bound to keep their Fidelity to him to whom they have sworn it either till he himself dispense with them or that some superiour Authority decide the matter otherwise it would be a Levity of most pernicious example for all the Subjects of other Princes if upon the simple Assertion of the first comer they might have liberty to renounce their Faith and blindly to give themselves to whoever should challenge them to be his It would likewise be an intolerable Arrogance in Subjects which would overthrow all the Order of Politie and of humane Society if they would attribute to themselves the power of Judging Causes of Sovereignties that same would not be endured even in private Successions in which the Subjects ought to remain under the Obedience of their Masters so long as they are not exempted from it by a superiour Decree We could according to this wicked Maxime by a more specious Right solicit the Subjects of the Dutchies of Burgundy and Bretanny and also with a farr juster Title all those of the Places resigned by the last Peace which France hath so frankly and lightly broken to renounce the Duty which they have promised to him who possesses them We should be grounded in our Pretension to the Dutchie of Burgundie on a solemn Treatie of Peace and for that of Bretanny on the Right of a lawfull Succession And I am certain that if the decision of this Process were referred to the people they would not hesitate to declare in our favour 'T is a Question which the Great and Supreme Arbiter of the World our SAVIOUR decided in the same case upon the captious propositions of the Pharisees Though the Right of the Romans and particularly Caesar's was subject to many Exceptions and that his Possession was not by much so well founded as ours is yet he ordained notwithstanding that the Tribute should be pay'd to the present Possessour to teach the people that it did not belong to them to judge of the Right but to yield Obedience to the party who was in actuall fruition of the Sovereignty who bore the marks and the Character and exercised the Jurisdiction thereto belonging ARTICLE IV. That the Renunciation of the French Queen is just irrevocable necessary and usefull to the Publick good nor contains in it self any cause of Nullity or Laesion and that the Queen of France hath been duely Doted HAving made known the Injustice of the Proceeding it remains to make evident that of the Pretension I shall conform my self upon this Subject to the Method which they have observed in their Libells that I may not lose sight of them Before they do attaque the Strength of the place they have employed all their force to take the Outworks and seeing that the Renunciation of the Queen of France was a Barricado which hindred them in their approches unto it they have employed their most powerfull Engines to blow it up without considering that by destroying that Work they overthrow the Foundation of a Treatie which hath given them such great Advantages over our Monarchie and deprive themselves of all the Rights to those Provinces which by this Peace they had acquired so that they can neither possess nor retain them henceforwards without manifest Injustice unless they acknowledge the Principles on which their Possession was established their own Mine doth fall back upon themselves If the Renunciation should be null the Pyrenean Treatie must be so too every thing must be brought back to it 's primitive Integritie They can no longer make use of the Instrument of Peace to secure and render their Conquests lawfull they repossess us again in all our Rights and all the Fruits which they have gathered from that Tree of which they endeavour to cut up the Root are but so many goods ill purchased Here it must be acknowledged that the Flattery of those Writers is very inconsiderate and that they have applied themselves more to a petty litigious Interest then to the Glory of their Prince they cannot controvert upon the Queen's Renunciation without calling the sincere Faith of their King into question The Marriage was concluded upon the ground of the Renunciation and the Peace upon that of the Marriage all these things have an inseparable connexion His most Christian Majestie was
same cause of the Incompatibilitie of these two Successions This Marriage and consequently this Renunciation which was the ground-stone of it hath been so much celebrated by the French Authors that in the Book of James de Bie of France Metallick is seen ingraven on the backside of a Medall of Gold Lewis the XIIIth holding Elizabeth of Austria by the hand with this Inscription AETERNAE FOEDERA PACIS But the rapid motion of France is inconsistent with the fixed point of Eternity Spain which presupposed the same Sinceritie to be in others which she found in her self gave ear to this Offer believing that by this Precaution the Laws of Spain might be reconciled with the Salique Law and the Liberty of their People and the Authority of their ancient Government be fully secured France It is certain by the Act of Renunciation and by the Contract of Marriage that in Agreement beâ—â—â—â—t the two Kings did precede the said Renunciation which acknowledged that the thing was just and had been formerly in use put her hands fully to it because of the great good which would redound unto her by a Peace which did establish her in so many Conquests The Instrument of it was drawn by common Consent and the most Christian King obliged himself to Ratifie it and cause it to be Enrolled in the Parliament of Paris presently after the Marriage And this Agreement was all the Foundation of the Peace which was immediately thereafter concluded Things being thus concerted between the Parties the King who had a Passion for this Princesse which surpassed all the Reasons of State would conclude nothing without her Approbation and therefore did put into her hands the decision of her Fortune On the one side he represented to her the Crown of France and the Person of the most Christian King with all the Advantages which do render him so worthy of esteem and on the other side a doubtful Succession which indirectly looked towards her to one of the greatest and most powerful Monarchies of the World Made known to her those irrevocable Laws which could not suffer that these two Kingdoms should be united into one and did not permit that she should retain her hopes and her Rights in the one if she preferred to it the possession of the other That he left it to her entire disposition to chuse of these two incompatible things that which she should find most agreeable to her Genius and most suitable to her Fortune This Generous Princess who had been educated in an Inclination for France and had a sufficient esteem for the Person of the most Christian King to prefer it before all the Kingdoms of the World and who stung with a very noble Ambition not to despise so beautiful a Throne as that of France did not stick to embrace the better and the more advantageous Bargain She freely renounced what could never be hers but by the death of those whom she loved as much as her self to accept of a Good much more precious in her esteem then that which she abandoned she quitted the doubtful and the future for what was certain and present hopes for realities and renounced most generously those Pretensions which she abhorred since they were but impediments to the accomplishment of her desires and to her good fortune Nor can it be doubted of without doing her injury but that if it were yet at her election to re-enter again into her Rights by quitting the Good she doth possess she would as willingly ratifie this Act to keep and enjoy it as she did freely sign to obtain it Upon this true Narration and upon the Act of Renunciation as also upon the XXXIII Article of the Treatie of Peace divers Reflexions may be made and Principles established which will overthrow from the foundations all those of the contrary partie The first is That this Treatie of Marriage and this Renunciation is an essential member of the Peace and though they be digested into different Instruments they do all notwithstanding make up but one Treatie as it is expresly declared in the said XXXIII Article wherein speaking of the Contract of Marriage to which they refer themselves these words following are added Which though it be separated hath the same force and vigour that the present Treatie of Peace hath as being the principal part thereof and the most precious Pawn of its greater security and lasting Secondly That as well the said Treatie of Peace as that of the Marriage are Contracts of sincere Faith and not of strict Law and that for the rule and ground of their subsistence and Interpretation we must referre our selves to the Causes and Ends which both sides did propose to themselves in Treating and the Utilitie which arises from thence to the publick good Thirdly That these are Treaties betwixt two Great Monarchs who are not subject to any particular Laws It is clearly explained in the Act of Renunciation nor dependent on the Customs of Places That they are fundamental Laws of the one and the other State which are not to be measured but by the Laws of Nations 't is a natural Obligation which they contract which cannot be broken by any Civil Law I. Jura naturae de Reg. Jur. it is properly the indispensable Law of Sovereigns which they can never violate nor alter without Injustice nor correct but by common Consent They are above particular Laws they can change and augment them at their pleasure as the Codes Henry and Lewis But these which tie them to an Equal with a reciprocal knot and which are the foundation of the publick Tranquillity can never receive any other form then that which the publick Seal hath imprinted upon them The Princes who are absolute Sovereigns when they do act as such have but two ways to terminate their Quarrels Arms and Treaties The first is but a means to attain to the other but if the latter have not a solid and immovable foundation and if it be permitted to break it upon the least Subtilities of private Right there is no more Securitie in the World and it is to reduce it to its first Confusion which gave occasion to the bringing in of Kings and Magistrates to hinder that force might not be the sole Arbiter of Differences Now as Princes are established to remedy this disorder among their Subjects so are Treaties likewise introduced to work the same effect among Princes so they are their Judges and their Magistrates to which they ought entirely and absolutely to submit themselves as they pretend that their proper Subjects are submitted to them France admits of no Prescription to the prejudice of the Royal Domaine she receives no Judges nor Processes there is nothing then but publick Treaties which can bound her Pretensions which do extend themselves almost over all Europe If she be suffered to exclude even this there will be no other means remaining but that of Force which silences all Laws and Kings shall put themselves
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
and innovate it in those of his Subjects But if it were granted to them that such like Customs do reach unto Sovereignties they would give us a just Right to pretend unto Bretanny and the Dutchie of Burgundie where Women ought to be admitted to the Succession of Fiefs not onely by the Custome of the people but expresly also by the Law of the State in regard of the Sovereigntie it self to which purpose it will avail nothing to alledge the Salique Law which is Apocryphal among the most learned and which at most cannot transcend the limits of the ancient Domains of France nor can change but by unjust Violence the nature of the Provinces which they do annex to their Crown but if that might be done by virtue of the Salique Law why should it not be lawful for our King to impose on those Provinces which he hath acquired the same Law which he doth practise in Spain Having manifestly proved by so palpable Reasons that the Local Customs as well of Brabant as of the other Provinces pretended to cannot be the Rule of Sovereigntie it remains that we take notice by what other legal ways they may be regulated and this cannot be by any but onely the following 1. By the nature of the said Sovereign Fiefs and their first Institution 2. By the ordinary Custome of the Sovereign Fiefs of the Empire of which some of these Provinces do hold 3. By the End for which they are established and by the Reason of State and the publick Interest 4. By the ancient and continual Practice in the like Successions As to the first it is undoubted that the Sovereign Fief of Brabant in its first beginning and by the Establishment of the Emperours was onely restricted to the Males to the entire exclusion of the Females and that since by the concession of the same Emperours it was extended unto Daughters but onely in default of Heirs-male as it is expresly recorded in the Imperial Constitution But that of the Emperour Charles the Vth made in the year 1549 Corst Phil. Rom. Reg. An. 1204. doth entirely stop the current of all the Difficulties that could be formed on this Subject by the indivisible Union which he established among all the Provinces of the Low-Countreys It is here where the Authours of these Libells lose the Card of their Compass and blunt the points of their darts endeavouring all in vain to shoot against this Rock This Constitution is both of the Emperour and of the proprietarie Prince 't is universal and comprehends all the Provinces 't is solemn and authentick by the general Consent of all the Estates and the subscription of all the Grandees of the principal Officers and the most illustrious Nobility it is established because it was not onely received but also earnestly solicited by the common wishes of the whole People 't is a publick Law which proceeds from the Sovereign Authority it concerns the Crown immediately it is founded upon the publick Utility and hath for its chief End the Preservation of all these Provinces under one and the same Lord The terms are clear Desiring above all things to provide for the Good Quiet and Tranquillity of our Countreys on this side and to keep them together in one body and that they may be inseparably possessed by one Prince alone Behold a publick necessary and inviolable Cause which directly regards the Principalities But on the contrary the Custome of the Devolution is conceived in terms that cannot be otherwise applied then to private ones If either a Man or a Woman have Children c. Were the Prince comprehended it would have been expressed in words of more reverence and clearer but the notice of the Custome expresly saith that it comprehends nothing but the Fiefs which hold of the Duke of Brabant and as the Writer himself confesseth it is made in favour of the First Marriage and out of the hatred to Second Beds which ought rather to be favoured then discountenanced in the person of Sovereigns chiefly when they are destitute of Heirs-male But let us go on farther to the terms of the conclusion of this same Sanction We do enact and decree that in all our said Countreys Representation shall have place in what touches the Succession either of Prince or Princesses being capable to succeed All this Clause must necessarily be referred to the former as built upon this foundation To conserve these Provinces in one Mass together c. Both the one and the other do totally exclude the Devolution if it be to be understood in that form which these Writers do pretend Moreover it is evident that this Union of Estates cannot consist with the Devolution because that this Custome is not generally established in all the Provinces which are comprehended in this Union whereby it might fall out that the Daughters of the First Bed should carry away a part of them by the Devolution and the Males of the Second Marriage by the Law of the Countrey should possess the other and by this means the order and the end of the Sanction should be absolutely overthrown I do profess that reflecting upon all these things I find my self seised with prodigious astonishment to see that these Writers do not blush at the libertie which they have given to their pens in contradicting of Truths so manifest and so generally received and that they are so effronted as to dare vent unto their own King and to the eyes of all Europe these extravagant Propositions Dialogue pag. 46. That there is nothing more contrary to History nor to the desires of all the Provinces then this Sanction which unites all those Provinces together That this Emperour had truly thoughts of doing of it but that he found so open a Repugnancie against it and so invincible a one in the inclinations of the Countrey c. That he quitted it very soon c. Nothing can be more falsely alledged This Sanction was received and is to be seen still Registred in all the Chambers of Accounts in the Low-Countreys But the Authour takes up a mistake or else will impose upon the Readers who will rely upon his faith he confoundeth another Design of Charles the Vth from whence he desisted with this of the Pragmatick Sanction which he finished without contradiction It is true that this Prince had some thoughts of erecting all these Provinces into a Kingdome to the same Custome and Politie but having met with great difficulties about the diversity of Customs Privileges Seals and Measures he held it not fit to put it in execution but as to the Union contained in the Pragmatick Sanction the diversity of Laws not extending it self to the Sovereigntie could not hinder the Union seeing that in France it self where all the Provinces are inseparably united to the Crown they do notwithstanding live under their particular Laws which in many places are very different and when we say they are united we do not therefore pretend that they are