them so hard that as they said they would hazard all rather than accept of them And when the French Ambassadors carried these conditions to my Lord Ambassador Jenkins to be by him communicated to the Confederates he made answer That he could not do it as Mediator but that he would acquaint them with them in discourse as a matter to which he promised no answer That Mediator refused to treat on these Conditions because in the League that on the 10th of January was concluded betwixt England and Holland the King his Master had made other conditions with the States-General to which they resolved to force France But he did not foresee that by refusing to present the French Kings Conditions to the Confederates which would prove the cause of as many treaties as there were Princes and States engaged in the War he excluded himself in effect from the Mediation The news came about that time that the French had abandoned Messina and all their Conquests in Sicily People were strangely â—â—rprised to see that the Mareshal de la Faâ—â—â—â—ade who was thought to have been sent into that Kingdom with fresh Forces upon design of some new enterprise was only gone thither to fetch off the Forces that the King had there The abandoning of Sicily was imputed to the suspition that the French had of England's declaring where considerable Levies were already making Some wondered that the French King should so easily abandon a Countrey the yeilding up of which might have stood him in stead in the Treaty of Peace with Spain Others on the contrary thought it more glorious for him so to recall the succour which he was pleased to give the Messineses without having had any hand in their revolt than to forsake by a Treaty people that had implored his protection It was not to be doubted but that the present juncture of affairs would oblige the King to provide against all accidents and therefore the Marshal de la Favillade having declared to the Senate his Majesties Orders grounded on the need that he stood in of all his Forces caused his Troops to embark But many of the Messineses dreading the certain revenge of the Spaniards came in so great number on board of the French Fleet that if there had been more ships there Messina had been wholly disserted The Confederates had their eyes fixed solely upon England as the only place from whence they might expect any considerable relief Hence it was that many Ambassadors left Nimueguen Don Pedro de Ronquillo went to Brussels to return no more but it was thought the reason was because he would not be inferior to the Marquess de la Fuentes who came as it were only accidentally to Nimueguen Don Pedro de Ronquillo who passed for one of the sharpest sighted men that was in all that famous Assembly could not forbear to tell a French Gentleman upon occasion of the conditions of Peace which the French King had proposed That he admired the prudence of that great Prince and that the success of his conduct would well appear by the necessity they were like to be brought to either of making peace or of maintaining the War alone The Baron of Platen Envoy of the Prince of Osnabrug went likewise to Brussels Mr. Spanheim on the 27th of April set out for England with the quality of Envoy Extraordinary from the Elector Palatine The Count of Oxenstiern a few days after embarked on the same design Mr. Oliver Krantz soon after did the same Which made some think that the Suedes intended to take other measures fearing lest France in the sequel might not be powerful enough to buoy up Sueden from the low condition into which it was sunk Thus from all parts came bellows to blow the fire that was kindling in England and which already threatned France In the mean time the Parliament that was then sitting was prorogued until the 9th of May and in the Assembly of the States of Holland which were at that time met the Towns were divided as to the continuation of the War The propositions which the French King made to the States-General seemed so reasonable that notwithstanding the powerful faction of the ill affected Amsterdam Leyden Harlem and all North-Holland were absolutely for peace May 1678. The Province of Holland being the most considerable of all the rest always turns the balance of deliberations so that Deputies were sent to London and Brussels to represent the impossibility that the States-General were in of continuing the War And it appears by the three printed Memoirs of the Heer 's Boreel and Weede the Extraordinary Deputies of the States to the Duke of Villa Hermosa Governour of the Spanish Netherlands of the 8.14 and 27. of May that the reasons of that impossibility were no less founded on the power and strength of France than on the weakness of the Dutch and Spaniards and the unprofitableness of all their efforts At that time there began to be some hopes of Peace what aversion soever all the Ambassadors of the Confederates seemed to have to it The time prefixed by the King was near at hand and on the fifth of May the French Ambassadors received orders to declare that his Majesty required that the Messineses who were come for refuge into France should by the Treaty of Peace with Spain be restored to and maintained in the possession of their Estates and that they might dispose of them at their pleasure The Ambassadors were enjoined to insist upon that point as a matter that his Majesty concerned himself much in but that demand being made after that the conditions were proposed it could not create an obstacle sufficient to hinder the conclusion of the Peace Nevertheless it afterward produced a very considerable difficulty seeing it lasted long after the signing of the Treaty and was one of the causes that were alledged of the long delay that Spain made in exchanging the ratifications Though it was no new thing to hear of the success of the French forces nevertheless men were strangely surprized at the news which a Courier brought from Maestricht that on the sixth of May a Detachment of that Garison commanded by the Sieur de la Breteche had surprized the fort of Leew situated in a Marsh with a double Ditch well pallisado'd The barrels of Wax-cloth which were prepared at Maestricht for the Execution of that Enterprize had not the success that was expected but forty swimmers joining valour to stratagem had the greatest share in that fortunate exploit in so much that in an hours time the French were masters of a very strong place and very easie to be maintained The States-General in the mean time began seriously to reflect on the advantage of making Peace upon the conditions which the French King had offered them The Town of Amsterdam which has the same esteem amongst the Towns of Holland that Province has among the other six was of that opinion and backt it vigorously that Town hath always
least advance towards it especially so long as it was so well supported by the men and money of France In the mean while the French Ambassadors having seen the Answer that the Danish Ambassador made thought fit to reply to it on the 14th saying That the French King's design being to make the peace of the Empire universal his Majesty had stipulated in the Treaty that he should employ all his Offices with the King of Sueden and the Emperor the like with his Confederates to incline them to consent to a truce for better carrying on of the peace That the Suedish Ambassadors were the first that consented to it even by the Treaty whilst that those of Denmark and Brandenbourg were so far from condescending to what had been stipulated for them that on the contrary they had protested against the Treaty and used still all their endeavours to incline the Empire to prefer the continuation of the War before the ratification of the peace The French Ambassadors subjoined That it was this procedure of the Confederates which had given occasion to his Majesty of taking more efficacious measures for obtaining of a general peace with as much expedition as the good of the people required and therefore for making the Declaration of the 24th of February which was so much the more reasonable in the pretensions it contained in that all equity allowed that those who share most in the inconveniences of War should make likewise the greatest advantages of it The Elector of Cologn with whom peace was made was at present most exposed to the passage of Forces and his most Christian Majesty not desiring to make advantage of his Armies to the prejudice of the Empire was willing thereby to gratifie that Prince of all the rest to whom the continuation of a War which the obstinacy alone of the Elector of Brandenbourg entertained still in the Empire was most prejudicial At length the French Ambassadors declared that they would never consent to any proposition unless the re-establishment of the Treaties of Westphalia was fully admitted All men were of opinion that the cessation of Arms mentioned in the Treaty of Peace betwixt the Empire and France was the most proper means of compassing the Peace of the North. And therefore the Ambassador of Brandenbourg finding that the French charged him in their Reply with refusing to accept of that Cessation and that at the same time they declared that they could not admit of any proposition which was not grounded on the Treaties of Westphalia thought himself obliged without further delay to make an Answer which he did the 16th He said That if by a repugnancy which is common on such occasions he had disapproved what the Imperial Ambassadors had concluded with France to the prejudice of his Master it could not be inferred from thence that he was unwilling to accept the cessation of Arms seeing he had made known to the French Ambassadors by the English Mediators that he was ready to conclude it upon reasonable conditions That as the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenbourg had cause to be very well satisfied with the Mediators so their Ambassadors ought not without express Orders to have the same respect for the offers of the Imperial Ambassadors that those of Sueden ought to have for the care that the French Ambassadors took of the concerns of that Crown and so much the rather because that if in this juncture France particularly performed the Articles of the League betwixt it and Sueden it was manifest that the Emperor did violate that which was contracted betwixt him and the Princes whom he abandoned The Ambassador added That the Elector his Master had only engaged in the War to maintain the Peace of Westphalia against the Invasion of Sueden That his Electoral Highness was willing to have contributed what he could to the preservation of that Peace in its full force but that since it was the intent of the same Peace that those who should break it to the prejudice of those that are comprehended therein should make reparation according to the sentence of the Emperor and Empire there was nothing more just than to put in execution the Decree which the Emperor and Empire had given against Sueden in the present case and that it was far greater obstinacy to refuse that which was reasonable than to pretend to what was lawfully ones due The Mediators in the mean time and the Ambassadors of all the Princes who had made their Peace perceiving that the Month of March which the French King allowed as the longest delay to the Elector of Brandenbourg was drilled on in debates and disputes in Writing without any serious application to the promoting of the Peace solicited the French Ambassadors to consent to a cessation of Arms during all the following Month not doubting but in that time all the difficulties that hindered the conclusion of the general Peace might at length be removed These solicitations made the French Ambassadors declare to the Mediators on the 26. that in compliance with the Instances that had been made to them both by them and the Bishop of Gurck in name of the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg for a suspension of Arms until the first of May they consented in name of the King their Master and his Allies to a cessation during the whole Month of April provided the same Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg accepted of it without delay saying it was neither the fault of them nor of their Allies that that Truce was not granted at the time that they signed the Peace with the Emperor according to the offers that were made then but that it was the protestations of the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg only which was the cause it did not then take effect The French Ambassadors declared to the Mediators at the same time that they had not only received the ratification of the Peace which they had signed with the Imperial Ambassadors the 5th of February but that also his most Christian Majesty desiring to see that Peace with all expedition accomplished for the repose of the Empire he had sent them a commission for the fulfilling of the Treaty so that since it was not his fault that the Empire did not instantly reap the fruits of so desired a Peace if it happened that the ratification of the Emperor should not be exchanged within the time prescribed by the Treaty they demanded from that instant in name of the King that the demolition of Philipsbourg and the surrender of all Briâ—gow might be granted to his Majesty and added to the Treaty for satisfaction of the charges that he was obliged to be at And as to the Duke of Lorrain that if that Prince did not in the same time fully and plainly ratifie all that the Imperial Ambassadors had stipulated for him his Majesty in that case held himself acquitted from all the conditions that he had granted to him The circumstance which the French Ambassadors
were not in such readiness as they were made believe so that one in Charleville foretold the Count D' Avaux That his stay in that Town should be as long as that of the late Count D' Avaux his Uncle who had waited there four months for his Passports when he went to Munster in the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the French King for the Treaty of the General Peace that was afterward concluded there The Ambassadors after two months stay perceiving that the difficulties which were started sometimes about the reciprocal liberty of sending messengers from Nimueguen upon their own single Passports and sometimes about the quality of Prince Charles who demanded of the French King the Titles of Brother and Duke of Lorrain might still detain them long at Charleville they resolved to cause their Goods which were already Embarqued to be brought ashore again and to wait for their Passports in that Town which came at length on the fourth of June bearing date the last of December in the foregoing year with an order of Court immediately to set forward accordingly they Embarked on the seventh of June The sickness of the Duke of Vitry still continued and was thought desperate which obliged the King to nominate in his place the Mareschal d' Estrade who was visited by his Colleagues in their passage at Maestricht and having staid there only a day on Sunday the 13 of June about one of the Clock aftâ—â—â—â—n they came to Moock two Leagues from Nimueguen where having instantly put ashore their Coaches and most part of their Equipage they set forward and came to Nimueguen about five of the Clock at night Though the French Ambassadors were incognito and without Train having left almost all their servants in the Boats with the rest of their Goods which did not arrive till next day yet it may be said that they made a publick entry by reason of the great concourse of people who out of curiosity and impatience to see the so much wisht-for Ambassadors flocked out of the Town upon the Ramparts into the streets and windows The vast number of Waggons laden with packs of Goods that came after and filled the whole street from the gate of the Town to the Ambassadors houses gave ground of admiration to that people who had never seen the like before The people seeing this and being perswaded of the grandeur of France believed that the Ambassadors had brought with them things of vast value and richness so that their houses were presently filled with those of the Town that crouded thither to see them and they were not only looked upon as sure pledges of Peace but also as a probable cause of the wealth of the Town All the people being falsly perswaded that the French were only to be blamed for the delay of the Treaty but now seeing they were come they concluded that in a short time Nimueguen was to be the Theater on which the greatness and magnificence of Europe was to appear Nevertheless matters advanced not so fast as people had imagined for as yet there were none at Nimueguen but Sir Lionel Jenkins one of the three Plenipotentiary Mediators from England and the Heer 's Beverning and Haren Ambassadors Plenipotentiary from the States General of the Vnited Provinces The French Ambassadors sent immedialy to acquaint my Lord Ambassador Jenkins with their arrival who rendered them the Complement and gave them next day a visit in a Coach with six Horses The Dutch Ambassadors did the like and the French rendered the Visits so soon as their Train and Equipage were in a condition to appear abroad The Mareshal d' Estrades had orders with all expedition to part from Maestricht and though his Train and Equipage were not as yet in readiness yet he arrived at Nimueguen the 28 of June whither Sir William Temple another of the Mediators from England came shortly after with my Lady Gifford his Sister my Lady Temple not coming till two months after My Lord Ambassador Temple is a person of much learning singular in his ways and opinions Some judged him partial in the Mediation and somewhat unequal in his humour he is nevertheless a person of great abilities and well acquainted with the Republican principles as appears by the remarks he hath written upon the State of the Vnited Provinces His Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins is a civil well-bred Gentleman of great integrity and firm to his Religion a person endued with much knowledg who always shewed himself to be good Mediator These Ambassadors had aâ— 100 l. sterling a week besides an hundred and fifty pounds given them for providing their Equipage with Furniture for the Chamber of Audience and a service of the Royal Plate according to the custom of England The report that came abroad at that time that the Prince of Orange intended to besiege Maestricht seemed as unprobable as the enterprize was dangerous notwithstanding the Hollanders flattered themselves with the hopes of carrying that place in a fortnights time and it seemed they only waited for the departure of the Mareshal d' Estrades that they might accomplish their designs but the conclusion of that siege was much to the advantage of the French who that year succeeded in every thing almost that they undertook either by Sea or Land The King in four days took Condâ— and on the 25 of April obliged it to render on discretion After five days siege the Duke of Orleans carried Bouchain on the 12 of May in sight of the strongest Army that the Confederates ever had in the Low-Countries under the command of the Prince of Orange who thought it not fit to hazard a Battel with the Kings Army that lay within Canon-shot of him Aire on the last of July suffered the same fate The King laid the design and the Marquess of Louvois in the command of the Mareshal d' Humieres put it in execution The Fort of Linck was taken the 9th of August The Mareshal Duke of Vivonne was very successful in his Fights on the Sicilian Seas and in the Port of Palermo bâ—rnt part of the Spanish and Dutch Fleet. The death of de Ruyter that happened a little before by a great shot that he received on board his own Ship in an engagement against the French was an irreparable loss to the Dutch who never had an Admiral of so much merit and reputation In the mean while it was easie to be judged by what began to appear that if the Prince of Orange had taken Maestricht there was no hopes of finding the Dutch any ways inclinable to accommodation but an event so contrary to their expectation and the ruin of a great part of their Army of which most of the residue was seen to march by Nimueguen dejected them extreamly and made them think of other measures The first thing that began to be talked of was the Neutrality of the Country about Nimueguen The Mediators at the solicitation of the Dutch desired that the
Negotiation whereby they alledged that after all the favourable expressions that the King was pleased to use towards them they could not believe that the sentiments of his Majesty agreed with the expressions of the Ambassadors Memoir That they could not impute that emergent to any thing but the artifice of those who for private interests were against the publick peace That in all the Negotiation no mention being made of Sueden to them it would be unjust to pretend that the King having demanded a neutrality from the States-General as an essential condition in their separate peace they ought to give their places to be made use of against their Allies That the States promised as they had already done to contribute what in them lay for the accommodation of the Northern powers by all the good offices they were capable to perform and they protested that it was not their fault if the peace were not presently brought to a happy conclusion That Answer made it evidently appear that the States-General had no design to condescend and indeed they began to think of other measures for their Deputies about Foreign affairs signed a second Treaty with Ambassador Temple grounded on this That the States-General having accepted the offers of his most Christian Majesty and engaged that his Catholick Majesty should do the same as to what concerned him they perceived to their grief that the Ministers of France opposed the peace by the refusal of delivering up the places That therefore they were obliged to have recourse to his Majesty of Great Britain to the end that if his Mediation with the most Christian King should prove ineffectual he would protect so just a cause and assist them with his forces This Treaty was still conditional as to the circumstance of time and was not to take effect but in case they could not obtain from the French King a Declaration favourable to their pretensions before the eleventh of August and that his Majesty absolutely refused to render up the places upon the exchange of the Ratifications In case of such a refusal they agreed with his Majesty of Great Britain to declare War against France that by united force they might oblige that King to embrace the conditions stipulated by that Treaty These conditions were far different from those which the French King proposed the 9th of April but they were only specified for the Empire Spain and Lorrain Whilst that Treaty was concluding at the Hague and that the Ministers at Nimueguen impatiently expected to know what resolution would at length be taken on either side concerning the restitution of places the Marquess de los Balbases made some instances to the French Ambassadors to incline them to admit of the Marquess de la Fuente that he might not have the displeasure of being come to that Assembly and not have the power to sign the Treaty of peace but they would not consent until that Ambassador produced a plenary Commission in the same form with the rest and they were satisfied with a collationed copy which the Nuncio's Auditor gave them without receiving the visit of that Ambassador for the reason that I mentioned before The Marquess de la Fuente that loves to be very gallant resolved to treat the Ambassadors Ladies after the Spanish fashion but seeing they visited no Ambassadors that wanted Ladies they were invited in the name of the Marchioness of Quintana who did the Honours of the Feast The two French Ambassadors Ladies went thither but the Ambassadors excused themselves because they visited not the Marquess de la Fuente Whether it was there or that there had been before some difference betwixt the Servants of Monsieur Colbert and the Marquess de la Fuente which might have occasioned some resentment it happened that this time a Lackey belonging to Monsieur Colbert was somewhat ill used at the Gate this Footman did the like to one of the Servants of the Marquess de la Fuente the first time that they came to the house of Monsieur Colbert in so much that the difference made such noise that the Nuncio thought fit to take cognizance of it and to make both sides promise that the matter should go no further The same day being the 29th the French Ambassadors by a Courier-Express received Orders from Court according to which they framed a Memoir which they gave to the Dutch Ambassadors whereby they signified to them that the satisfaction of a King in Alliance with the King their Master being the sole end that his Majesty proposed to himself in the present affair of the retention of Places he would willingly admit of all Propositions that might tend to that end and that for that effect he would come as far as St. Quentin to hear what the States had to propose to him by Deputies assuring them that they would find him so equitably inclined that they should have no more cause to doubt of the sincerity wherewith his Majesty had begun and continued to treat with them concerning Peace The Dutch Ambassadors had nothing to answer to these Propositions they said That they saw no expedient to remove that difficulty which was made about the restitution of the places that if the French Ambassadors had any they might propose them and that their Masters did not think that a deputation upon that subject would be to any purpose It seemed that the mistrust which the Ambassadors entertained mutually of one another upon occasion of the impediment that stopt the conclusion of the Peace and even infected their Servants for the accommodation that I just now spoke which was made two days before did not so appease either party but that on the last of July at night there happened amongst them a scuffle of far more dangerous consequence That evening there was a great Rendezvouz at the House of the Heer Odyke and as it was on a Saturday they intended to stay by it and drank to their wives The French Ambassadors had notice given them about ten of the Clock that the Servants of the Duke of St. Peter had been there with Arms. They immediately acquainted the Nuncio with it who had concerned himself in adjusting that Quarrel who was not indeed wanting in giving necessary Orders about it But about Eleven of the Clock at night the Marquess de la Fuente his Pages who had been the Authors of the first difference went and fired some Pistols about the House of Monsieur Colbert which made the Servants of the French Ambassadors to provide against what might happen The Company being set down to Table at the House of the Heer Odyke the French Ambassadors observed that all the Servants of the Spanish were about the Table and filled the Hall whilst they were without attendance according to their custom that they might not pester the house they went to This made them send to call all their Gentlemen to come and wait on them to stand behind them and to order their Pages to serve them These Orders
were persuaded that his errand was not to facilitate the signing of the Peace nor to bring the distant parties to a nearer accommodation as to the conclusion of it His proceedings appeared all along too contrary to the character of a Mediator to make that to be believed In the mean time on the 9th in the evening the Ambassadors of the States-General had a long conference with the French they represented to them the short time that remained for ending that great work the accomplishment whereof was only retarded by a difficulty which ought not to seem of great importance to them in comparison of the great advantages which the peace would produce and seeing they had not time to translate into French the Memoir which they had to give in concerning that they contented themselves to tell them the substance of it The French Ambassadors made no answer to the instances of the Dutch but that their hands were tied and that without new Orders they could proceed no further At length the tenth came which was the great day that was to give a happy beginning to the repose of Europe or quite quash all hopes of it for a long time Nevertheless there appeared no hopes that the peace could be signed that day and it could not be conceived why the refusal of a deputation which was not absolutely necessary should put a stop to the accomplishment of so great a good The Hier Odyke returned to the Hague the 7th because he had lost all hopes of peace but both by reason that he believed that the tenth day might produce some change in affairs and that he had Orders from the Prince of Orange to make on the eleventh a protestation in name of the States against all that could be concluded if that day past without signing the peace he came back the same day in haste to Nimueguen The Hier Boreel Envoy Extraordinary from the States-General went at nine in the morning to wait on the Marshal D' Estrades and gave him the Memoir made the day before wherein the States-General thanked his Majesty for the care which he still took to remove all obstacles that occurred in the conclusion of the peace not only with them but Spain also and prayed his Majesty to consider that the enemies of their State having represented to them the evacuation of the places and the peace at the same time as desperate they had been obliged to enter into engagements with the King of Great Britain not to stave off the peace but to take from them the pretext they made use of and to clear his Majesty from being the cause of the same That for that end they had reserved to themselves a certain time which being ready to expire suffered them not to make the deputation that his Majesty desired but not doubting but that since all the conditions were at present agreed upon the peace would be signed before the eleventh they would not fail to make a deputation not to St. Quentin but to Paris to give his Majesty the testimonies of their respect and of the satisfaction they had from the conclusion of the peace M. Colbert and the Count D' Avaux went at the same time to the Marshal D' Estrades house but being unwilling to meet the Heer Boreel there because they designed all three to go that morning to the House of the Dutch Ambassadors and to tell them their last resolution they let the Heer Boreel come out without seeing him and immediately after they all three took coach and went to the Dutch Ambassadors It was believed so certainly that the French Ambassadors had no power to sign the peace that Ambassador Temple himself advised those of Holland to press them to it because he really believed they could not do it Nevertheless the French Ambassadors declared to them in that conference that they had power to sign their Treaties of Peace and Commerce and that it must be done the same morning if it were possible The Dutch being no less persuaded than the rest of the Confederates that without new Orders the French could conclude nothing were no less surprized than overjoyed at that proposition All the Articles about which there had been any debate were read over and they agreed to sign the Peace that day But seeing that conference had lasted from ten of the clock in the morning until half an hour after two in the afternoon and that some time was still required to write over the Treaties fair the signing was delayed until the evening The French Ambassadors had found by experience the importance of secresie for carrying on such a Negotiation to a happy end in so great an Assembly where there were almost as many persons to be feared as there were Ambassadors and where there was no less disposition to conceive jealousies of the conduct of France than it was easie for the Confederates to create new grounds of distrust and that was the cause why the French Ambassadors pretended to the last that they could not sign the peace upon pretext of a very slight obstacle to the end that the conclusion having almost nothing to hinder it they might in an instant surprise those who expected nothing less than such a change The length of the French and Dutch conference had already so alarm'd the Confederates that they were all in commotion before it was ended but they were very sensibly touched when they came to know that the peace was concluded and that it was to be signed that day without any possibility of hindering it It troubled them the more that they found England acting in their favours in the same manner as they had long desired Ambassador Temple could not forbear to evidence his discontent to the French Ambassadors who went all three together to visit him in the afternoon and to acquaint him that if he thought fit they would sign the Treaty at his house for upon pretext of some indisposition he received them in his night-cap and gown and absolutely refused their offers whether it was that he had instructions so to do or that he despaired not for all the matter was gone so far but that before night some impediment might arise that might break off the conclusion thereof That Mediator so little expected that the peace should be concluded that day that he had a Messenger ready in his house to part at midnight and to carry news to the States-General of the expiration of the term which engaged them to the execution of the Treaty that they had signed and that he might let the French Ambassadors see more clearly that the Mediation approved not that Treaty he prayed them to put his own and Colleagues names out of the Preface saying that the King their Master had not sent them as Mediators to a General Treaty there to sign a Separate Peace The Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg with the Bishop of Munster did all they could to hinder the signing of the peace They framed a
himself of Aix la Chapelle whither part of the Ammunition of Maestricht which then was evacuating in order to its being rendered up to the States-General was transported the rest being carried by water to Huy which was put in a condition necessary for the security of the Magazines What inclination in the mean time the French King made appear to the peace of Germany the Ministers of the Emperor still laboured to persuade the Diet at Ratisbon that his Majesty desired no peace seeing he proposed an Alternative of which both parts were equally impractible They said that the Emperor could not render Philipsbourg because by the Leagues which he had made with most of the Princes of the Empire he had obliged himself to demolish it as a place prejudicial to their liberty and that if he delivered up Fribourg he would thereby leave all Brisgow and the Forest-Towns under the jurisdiction of France and give the French a footing in the Empire with more advantage than they had before by the possession of Philipsbourg For overthrowing these reasons which were thought pretexts to stave off the Peace and to render the intentions of the French King suspected the French Ambassadors declared in his Majesty's name That he consented to the demolishing of Philipsbourg and that to remove from the Emperor and Empire all causes of jealousie and fear concerning Brisgow and the Forest-Towns he was satisfied with the City of Fribourg and three Villages under its jurisdiction This proposition blasted all the reasons of impossibility which were alledged against the practability of the Alternative on which the peace of Germany depended In the mean time all diligence was used to put Maestricht in a condition of being render'd up to the States-General according to the intent of the Treaty of peace And in effect the Count d' Avaux having given his word to the States-General that it should be evacuated by the sixth of October the same day they took possession of it with the greater satisfaction to the Dutch that there were some still amongst them who continued to possess them with distrust and to persuade the people that France intended only to cheat them and that the King would not surrender Maestricht The French Forces that possessed almost all the passes on the Rhine were very uneasie to all the Neighbouring Princes who were engaged in the War The Duke of Newbourg who had most reason to fear was the first that desired of the States-General that he might be comprehended in their Treaty and enjoy the benefit of the Peace according to the 19th Article which gave them power to name their Allies within the space of six weeks that they might be included in the Treaty That Prince had the greater reason to hope that by this means he might put himself out of danger in that he was really an Ally of the States and that he had declared that he would accept the Peace before the expiration of the six weeks The Elector of Mayence and Treves made the same Declaration and the same demand to the States-General by a Memoir which the Baron of Leyen presented in their names at the Hague But what instances soever the States made in favour of those Princes and what assurances soever they gave that the Emperor himself would ere long accept the Peace they could not obtain any thing in a matter which they thought just and conform to the Article of their Treaty before they heard the reasons which the French alledged against that pretension On the 30th the Marquess de los Balbases returned from Brussels whither he went after the signing of the Peace with Spain It was thought that he brought the Ratification of the Treaty because the six weeks wherein the exchange was to be made were expired the day before Nevertheless he brought it not but the French King having sent an Express to the Count d' Avaux that Ambassador declared to the States on the fifth of November 1678. that notwithstanding the negligence of Spain his Majesty was willing in consideration of them to prolong the time of the exchange of the Ratifications until the 20th of that month And by the next Courier that came news was brought that in compliance with the instances of the Ambassadors of the States-General his Majesty had granted the whole Month. At that time the Plenipotentiary of Lorrain declared That his Master accepted the Peace upon the terms proposed by the French King the 9th of April and at the same time chose the second part of the Alternative by which Nancy was to remain to his Majesty who in exchange thereof gave him the City of Toul upon the conditions specified in the Article of the Kings project which concerns that Prince The Nuncio who promised himself that all these particular acceptations of Peace would terminate in the conclusion of the General Peace employed all his care and pains with much zeal to incline the Emperors Ambassadors and the Ministers of other Catholick Princes not to defer any longer the complishment of so great a blessing The French King in the mean time well perceived that these Princes of the Empire consented only to a separate Peace in prospect of putting themselves out of danger of his Arms and not with design to conclude it upon conditions that respected the Empire in general seeing they desired no more but to be comprehended in the Dutch Treaty and consented not to the reinforcement of the Treaties of Westphalia which granted free passage to his Majesties forces through the Empire so often as it was necessary they should march that way for the execution of the same Treaties And therefore the King yeilded not to the desire of those Princes though the States-General who made it a point of honour to procure them the benefit of their peace in the midst of War pretended they had right to have them included in their Treaty The Count de Bouvean d' Epense whom the King permitted the Spring before to take a journey to Berlin to see the Elector of Brandenbourg his old Master about that time came back to Nimueguen though he was wholly addicted to the Interests of his Electoral Highness before the War yet his Majesty did not for all that repose less confidence in him for upon his return from Berlin finding the King in Flanders after the taking of Ghent his Majesty ordered him still to wait upon him designing to make use of all opportunities that might offer to renew a good correspondence with the Elector And therefore he came to Nimueguen with particular instructions from the Court to contribute what he could to that peace and the French Ambassadors acted nothing without his consent in the transactions that passed at Nimueguen concerning that Negotiation The Imperial Ambassadors could not as yet resolve to give their consent to the entire confirmation of the Treaties of Westphalia it was the thing that created them most trouble and which was most prejudicial to the Authority that the
added to their declaration of the Instances which they said were made to them by the Bishop of Gurck in the name of the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg so sensibly touched those two Ambassadors that thinking their Honour thereby much offended they took a great deal of pains to make the contrary appear by long answers which they made on that subject on the eighteenth affirming that they had never neither desired nor rejected the cessation of Arms but nevertheless that they might omit nothing that might in any probability tend to the promoting of the Peace they accepted the Truce upon such conditions as should on both sides be agreed upon Never were any Ambassadors more fond of Writing than those of Denmark and Brandenbourg their debates had already occasioned as many publick Writings during the Month of March alone as had been made during the negotiation of all the other Treaties put together In the mean time the French Ambassadors that they might give these Ambassadors all the satisfaction that they could desire upon so nice a point declared on the Nineteenth That since the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg thought themselves wronged in that they could be suspected to have demanded or desired a cessation of Arms they consented that the Mediators might give them a publick Act thereupon to be joyned to the protestations which they had made against the peace of the Empire whilst that they on the contrary being perswaded that all the proceedings of the King their Master for the advancement of the general Peace in a time when he was in a condition to continue the War with advantage argued great glory to his Majesty They still offered the cessation on the same conditions which they proposed to the English Mediators without derogating in the mean time from their Declaration of the 24th of February in case that the Peace was not signed in the Month of March and that they accepted not the Truce But that if they consented to it for the whole Month of April it was his Majesties will that during all that Month the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenbourg might have liberty to conclude the Peace without requiring the new Conditions that had been demanded of them At length after so many debates and proceedings to no great purpose the Treaty of cessation was signed at Nimueguen the last of March to continue till the first of May and was exchanged both in name of his most Christian Majesty and King of Sweden betwixt the French Ambassadors on the one part and those of Denmark and Brandenbourg on the other But seeing that before the signing of that Treaty the French Intendant had caused Contributions to be demanded from the Country of Cleves on the other side of the Raine and that the French Ambassadors could not promise that they should not be pretended notwithstanding the conclusion of the cessation the same Ambassadors consented by a publick Act that the Dutch Ambassadors should pass their word for them that they should Write about it to the King that they might know his intentions and that in the mean time no hostile execution should be made during the space of Fifteen days after which if his Majesty thought good that these Contributions should be exacted they engaged to give the Inhabitants of the Countrey Three days more to take such measures in as they should think fit The Truce that was now signed instead of advancing the negotiation on the contrary stopped the course thereof during all the time that it lasted because the French Ambassadors sticking to their Declarations there was no more to be said So that the Two Princes that remained still in War Judged it more convenient to negotiate their Peace with the King himself than at Nimueguen not doubting but that they might promise themselves some advantage to their interests from Treating rather with a great Prince than being too headstrong in defending the same at Nimueguen by a long train of proceedings from which they had no great cause to expect a happy conclusion The Elector of Brandenbourg had for that effect already sent M. Meinders to the French Court and his Danish Majesty ordered M. de Mayerkron his Envoy to the States General to go immediately and wait upon the King In the mean time a great part of Europe was allarmed at the Fleet which the most Christian King was setting out to Sea Italy and particularly the Republick of Genoa were much startled thereat Denmark feared a descent in the Countrey of Holstein and the Parliament of England where there happened such commotions that the Duke of York was obliged to depart out of the Kingdom conceived some Jealousies at the French Naval preparations In the mean while the Ambassadors of Sweden having by two several Couriers and contrary ways sent to the King their Master the Treaty of Peace which they had signed with the Emperor that by that means notwithstanding the severity of the Danes concerning free passage they might receive the ratification in time these two Couriers arrived at Nimueguen from several places the 17th and 18th with the ratification in good form But his Swedish Majesty refused to confirm the Treaty which was concluded with the Princes of Brunswick because they thought in Sweden that they had yielded to them a great deal too much and the rather that the most Christian King indemnified all these Princes at his proper charges About the same time the President Canon Plenipotentiary from the Duke of Lorrain renewed his instances with the French Ambassadors that he might obtain some moderation of the conditions that had been stipulated for his Master The Imperial Ambassadors did also the like but without any success So that they thought it enough to declare that his Imperial Majesty pretended to be no longer obliged by the Articles that concerned that Prince by which his most Christian Majesty had declared himself obliged and they demanded that that Peace might be deferred until another time in so much that the Imperialists being unwilling that the time mentioned in the Treaty should expire without exchanging the ratifications because of the pretensions made by the French in their last declaration of the 26th past they resolved to make the exchange the 19th of April April 1679 There arose an unexpected difficulty concerning the exchange of the ratifications for the Mediators who had not signed the Peace would not take it upon them The Nuncio likewise excused himself from doing it because he had protested against the same Peace in respect it was concluded in conformity to the Treaties of Westphalia against which Rome had then protested because of the revenues of the Church which they were then obliged to secularise and yield up to Protestants without which it had been impossible to have procured Peace to Germany So that the expedient that was found out was to make the exchange of the ratifications by the hands of Secretaries who were reciprocally sent on both sides And seeing the
Colbert at that time had only the character of Envoy Extraordinary for mediating the differences that were at that time betwixt the States General and the Bishop of Munster and Monsieur Colbert being in the Electors Countrey it was not his part to raise any dispute upon that head The Ambassadors of the Emperor complained also of the publick refuse which the French made of the visit of Mr. Stratman The cause of those misunderstandings was imputed to the Spaniards who finding themselves always thwarted in the equality which they so strongly pretend to with France contend not for it with other Crowns to the end they may unite them all and so oppose themselves with greater force to the precedency which France claims or at least to disturb it as much as they can in the possession of an advantage which they cannot obtain for themselves There was an innovation made at Nimueguen of what was practised at Cologn in regard of the Mediators to whom in that quality all the Powers had granted the precedency in the affairs that concerned the Mediation And the Mediators on their parts being desirous to prevent all occasions of quarrels which frequently happen upon occasion of Livery-men especially when many of different Nations meet together in one place perswaded all the Ambassadors in the first place to command their Pages and Lacqueys to wear no swords which was punctually observed And seeing most of the streets of Nimueguen are so narrow that two Coaches can hardly pass a breast the Mediators drew up a writing to be signed by all the Ambassadors by means whereof they did sufficiently obviate all the inconveniences which were to be feared during the Treaty That writing bore That in consideration of the narrowness of the streets when two Coaches going contrary ways should meet that Coach which should be least advanced into the street should put back without any consequence to be drawn therefrom or prejudice to any ones pretensions that he that should most punctually obey that order should be held to be the most inclined towards the peace the matter being thus concerted for no other end but for avoiding all occasions of quarrelling and to keep those who laboured for the restauration of the publick repose in goodintelligence together The French Ambassadors were the first who signed that writing the Swedish did the like and the Danish Ambassadors followed their example but the matter went no farther so that it was to be feared that some unhappy accident might afterwards happen amongst so many Ambassadors but the order that was made for preventing any disorder amongst servants was punctually put in execution There happened at that time long debates concerning the manner of treating about the affairs of the peace and that matter was not easily adjusted all the Confederates were for having it managed only by writing The French Ambassadors maintained that having given in their first propositions in writing the way of treating by word of mouth with the Mediators was the shortest The Confederates would not condescend to this but made very long answers in writing to the French propositions which seemed rather invectives than answers to the proposals of peace But the French waving all these disputes which produce always strife gave their answers verbally by the Mediators the Dutch were the first that approved this method and all the Confederates at length yielded to this way of treating as the most expedient for diispatching in a short time Don Pedro de Ronquillo continued still incognito at Nimueguen whither Mr. Christu arrived on the 18th of March. This Third Ambassador of Spain is a Fleming Doctor in the Laws and Counceller in the Flemish Council in Spain who hoped to have the Office of Chancellour of Brabant in recompence of his services In the mean time the News of the siege of Valenciences before which the King came the first of this Month made all people very impatient to know the success of that enterprise it being known what care and circumspection had been taken for the preserving of that place but the news that came of the Trenches being opened the Ninth in the night time was quickly followed with the taking of the place on the 17th about Nine in the morning The manner of taking Valenciennes surprized all men and daunted the Spaniards The King commanded the Counter-scarp to be attacqued with two Half-moons that flanked a Crowned work and that they should lodg on the front of that work which covers another that is before the Gate of the Town But the Kings forces marching cross those Half-moons attacqued that great Crowned-work on the front and sides and entered it on all hands killed or made Prisoners all that opposed them and pursuing those that saved themselves in the Town gained the Bridg and second Work and by a Wicket where they could not pass but one after another they made themselves masters of the Town-gate so that in less than half an hour the King saw a place of that consequence taken by force April 1677 The Confederates hoped that the siege of Valenciennes begun in so bad a season would have ruined a great part of the Kings forces but that Conquest with others that were foreseen would follow much disheartened them Nevertheless the Treaty of Peace went on but very slowly for all that The Confederates grounded their hopes on the great Exploits that the German Forces were to perform in Alsatia and on the Declaration of England which they expected in their savours not doubting but that the Parliament would sollicite the King to join with them for opposing the progress of the French but the Confederates at that time found themselves much disappointed in their Expectations The two Houses of Parliament represented to the King of England the necessity of putting a stop to the progress that the French made in the Low-countries The King answered those that made him the Address from the Parliament That it was the thing he had in his thoughts and that he should take care that the French should not be in a condition of giving jealousie to his Subjects and that his Subjects should have no cause to have any His Majesty of Great Britain was afterwards informed that Don Bernardo de Salinas Envoy from Spain gave it out that his Majesty had called the Authors of that Address Rogues The procedure of that Minister so much the more offended the King of England as that in so nice a juncture it might have produced dangerous effects in his Kingdoms and therefore he sent order to Don Pedro de Salinas to keep within doors and to make ready to depart out of the Kingdom within twenty days The Ambassadors in the mean time remained at Nimueguen like Spectators and all that was done there was to consider and observe what passed in the Low countries where after the taking of Valenciennes the King made himself Master of Cambray on the third of April five days after the Trenches were opened the Governour with
disposition to promote the common cause In effect they sufficiently perceived that they were engaged farther than they would have desired which made the Spaniard fear that if they accepted a Truce they might in a short time be abandoned by the greatest part of their Confederates On the fifth of May the news came by Letters from England that the Session of Parliament was broken up the 26. of the foregoing Month and that the King was fully satisfied with them though no Act had passed contrary to the Interests of France but that his Majesty of Great Britain had adjourned them till the 27 of May to consider of such means as might give a new countenance to the present affairs There came news also which gave some content that the first Ambassadors of the Emperor and King of Spain were shortly to come with the Popes Nuncio to Nimueguen where all affairs were at a stâ—â—â— because the Count of Kinsks had no 〈◊〉 to agree but on preliminaries until thâ—â—â—â—ing of the Bishop of Gurck the châ—â—◠〈◊〉 the Imperial Embassy The President Canon Envoy and Plenipotentiary from the Duke of Lorrain being come to Nimueguen on the 25th of May payed a visit to the three French Ambassadors in one of the Coaches of Don Pedro de Ronquillo who remained still incognito Mr. Spanheim who was at Nimueguen about the affairs of the Elector Palatine visited also the same Ambassadors who returned the Visits without any ceremony seeing this last had had the quality of Envoy in other Negotiations it was not doubted but that he carried the same character in this but it appeared afterward that he had only Credential Letters from his Master and therefore the Confederates would not admit him into their Conferences About this time the Elector of Brandenbourg wrote to the King of England concerning the Injustice that he pretended was done to his Ambassadors by France and the matter said he touched him the more sensibly that the decision of that difficulty was left to his Enemies without doing the lustice which was due to him and that he expected it from his Majesty of 〈…〉 Britain without which he would be â—â—â—ged to recall his Ambassadors from Nimueguen But that Letter and all the instances that were made upon that subject had no effect as to France which had not the same reasons as England had to condescend to those new pretensions On the first day of June 1677. Seignior Beliagua who had been Nuncio extraordinary at the Emperor's Court to incline him to contribute to the peace of Christendom arrived at Nimueguen by water from Cologne and came to the house that was prepared for him near the French Ambassadors the scarcity of convenient Houses not permitting him who was sent before to follow the express Orders he had to chuse a house in some part of the Town which might be equally distant from the French and Spaniards that he might give no cause of jealousie to either of those two Nations The arrival of a Mediator so disinterested as the Uncle of his Holiness ought to be gave hopes that his Mediation would much contribute to the promoting of the Peace because of the confidence that the chief parties concerned reposed on him Seignior Beliagua is of a very noble Family in Ferrara and rich in estate he is Patriarch of Alexandria and was Governour of Rome in the reign of Clement IX nor was that charge taken from him under â—â—â—ment X. his Successor but in exchange of the extraordinary Nunciature of Vienna from whence he was sent Mediator to Nimueguen by Innocent XI who at present fills the Holy See Although the allowance of great Nuncio's exceed not 370. Roman Crowns a month and that he was not well paid his Train was nevertheless splendid and his House well ordered His civil and familiar carriage gained him the affection of all people and his good intentions towards the Peace made him to be equally respected by all the Ambassadors Next day after his arrival the French Ambassadors sent three Gentlemen together to testifie the joy they had for his happy arrival and to offer him all the civilities they were able to perform impatiently expecting a fit time to come and salute him in person The three Gentlemen were received by the Nuncio according to the custom of Italy in the Chamber of Audience upon three elbow-chairs They spoke covered and were conducted by the Nuncio as far as the dore of the outer anti-chamber that looked into the Court. The same honour was done to the Gentleman that render'd that compliment on his part and the day following after noon the three Ambassadors of France went severally to visit the Nuncio incognito and on foot his house being distant but a few steps from thence yet they were followed by all their servants The Emperors Ambassadors were there also in the morning incognito On the fifth of June the Nuncio gave notice of his arrival to the two Ambassadors of the Emperor who had their publick audience at five of the clock afternoon and to the French Ambassadors who visited him at seven of the clock with a train of seven Coaches and six horses a piece The Towns-people were very curious to see such ceremonies but much more for this being impatient to see how a Nuncio of the Pope looked The Burgomasters of the Town and a great number of other persons placed themselves in the Windows of the Neighbouring houses to see him at his gate whilst he received and re-conducted the Ambassadors to their Coaches He was in a plain long purple habit lined with scarlet and carried a Cross of Diamonds but he was cloathed commonly in a short habit No body wondered at the curiosity of that people seeing it was a very extraordinary thing to see a Pope's Nuniorâ—â— a Protestant Town The Countrey people both Protestant and Catholick came flocking to Nimueguen for that end these found their spiritual consolation and those satisfied the great curiosity they had to see an Ambassador sent from the Pope of whom their Ministers give them an hideous description The Burgomasters of Nimueguen in consideration of the neutrality of the Town and of the Negotiation of so great a work as that of a general Peace visited the Nuncio and offered him all they could do for the free exercise of the Catholick Religion but he was satisfied to have a large Chappel only in his house whither Catholicks might freely come as they did to the French Ambassadors Chappel where service was performed on Festival-days with all the solemnity that is usual in Parish-Churches having even placed a Bell in the top of a Tower which was heard over a great part of the Town Some days before the arrival of the Nuncio a Jesuit belonging to the Family of Don Pedro de Ronquillo went about the streets in the habit of his Order this seemed so strange a thing that it stirred up the curiosity of all the people and therefore the Magistrates fearing lest such Novelties might
Court should authorise his Colleagues that the event might be the less laid at his dore The French Ambassadors sent three Gentlemen to return his compliment in the like terms of esteem and civility whom that Ambassador answered in French The same Gentlemen had Orders also to go wait upon the two other Spanish Ambassadors and to compliment them apart But it being just before insinuated that they had not as yet the character those Gentlemen were advertised not to give them the title of Excellence and for that reason Din Pedro de Ronquillo was not at home thô they went twice to his house and at dinner-time But Mr. Christin received the compliment without the least difficulty The Nuncio made no doubt but that if in the first steps that the French and Spaniards made there happened any thing that might give discontent to the French the Treaty might thereby receive great prejudice and therefore for preventing the same inconveniences to which the conduct of the Imperial Ambassadors towards the French had given occasion he so ordered mâ—â—tes that the carriage of the Spaniards should give the French no cause to complain So that that Mediator extremely zealous for the repose of Christendom hoped that by bringing the French and Spanish Ministers to a good and familiar correspondence together the affairs of the Peace would the more successfully be promoted Though the Marquess de los Balbases remained still incognito yet the French Ambassadors sent to compliment my Lady Marchioness and to desire audience of her They visited her separately and without much ceremony and so did all the other Ambassadors and their Ladies expecting till they could render her their publick Visits Of all the Ambassadors Ladies that were at Nimueguen the Marchioness de los Balbases was the only Lady that spoke not French but seeing she understood a little of it and that the other Ladies had no great difficulty to understand Italian from conversation and play they had no need of any Interpreter The progress that the French Tongue had made in foreign Countreys appeared at Nimueguen for there was no Ambassadors house where it was not almost as common as their Mother-tongue Besides it became so necessary that the Ambassadors of England Germany Denmark and other Nations held all their Conferences in French The two Danish Ambassadors agreed that even their common Dispatches should be made in that tongue because Count Anthony of Oldembourg spoke good High Dutch but not a word of Danes which his Collegue did Insomuch that during the whole course of the Treaty of Peace nothing hardly but French Writings appeared strangers chusing rather to express themselves in French in their publick ceremonies than to write in a language that was not so much in use as it July 1677. The Assembly now beginning to be formed and many strangers being with the Ambassadors at Nimueguen the Mediators on the second of July thought fit to renew the Writing that was spoken of before concerning the means of avoiding the inconveniencies which might happen upon the meeting of Coaches they likewise intreated the Ambassadors to command their Gentlemen upon severe penalties not to fight any Duels and all their servants not to make any disorder in the Town neither by day nor by night This was approved hy all the Ambassadors because of some Duels that had been already fought The Nuncio who was no less zealons for preservation of peace amongst the families which were to procure a general peace to all Europe made a like Writing in Italian which was signed by the Ambassadors in the same manner as that of the English Mediators was In thâ— mean time the Confederates raised all their Batteries in England and were not discouraged Their Ministers made new instances to the King of Great Britain That it would please him to recall the Forces that he had in the French Service representing to him that they were the cause of the loss of Mont-cassel His Majesty made them answer That in that Engagement there were none of his subjects in the French Army but the single troop of the English Gen d'arms wherein there were but seventeen English all the rest being French and that on the contrary the Dutch had two Regiments of Scots who had behaved themselves better in that action than any others of the whole Army That besides he could not recall his Forces from the French Service without declaring War against France seeing he had sent them thither before he was received to be Mediator and that desiring to retain that quality and only labour to procure peace he could not recall the one unless he likewise at the same time recall the others that he had in their service The Confederates had nothing to say to so just and reasonable an answer as that was and they found themselves disappointed of their hopes seeing that that powerful German Army that was to enter into France was put to a stand on the frontier by the Forces which the Marshal de Crequi commanded and so distressed for want of provisions and the parties of the neighbouring Garisons that it was obliged to retreat They conceived also so great jealousie of the King of England's equipping of a Fleet that they were in doubt whether on that side they had not as great cause to fear as to hope On the 13th of July there was an extraordinary Courier from England having Orders to Ambassador Temple to repair forthwith to London and accordingly on the fifteenth about five a clock in the morning he embarqued for that Voyage Every one had his several reasons concerning the hasty departure of that Mediator and could not agree whether it was a good or bad presage for the desired peace On the 16. the Marquess de los Balbases returned from Holland not well satisfied with the people of Amsterdam from whom he received not that favourable reception which he expected by reason of an opinion which that people had that the Spaniards for their own particular interests were the only cause of the continuance of the War Mr. Vlkens Envoy from the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp a Prince in League with the King of Sweden and who hath been dispossessed of his Territories by the King of Denmark rendered his first Visits to the French Ambassadors on the third of August and the same day the Count of Kinski and Mr. Stratman the Imperial Ambassadors visited publickly the Ambassadors of Spain who returned the Visit the same day The Nuncio ought to have been dissatisfied at those publick Visits made before the performance of that which was due to him as Mediator and Nuncio of the Pope Besides the French Ambassadors declared that at the very instant that the civility which was due to the English Ambassadors as Mediators was not rendered to them and that the Ambassadors of that Crown suffered those of the Emperour to have the precedency they would likewise re-assume the rank which they pretended to be their due without any respect to the Mediation
been more inclined to peace than any other not only because it suffered more by the interruption of commerce but also because it hath been more tender of its liberty having Magistrates disinterested and zealous for the Commonwealth Rotterdam had its advantage by the continuation of the War because there being but little or no Trade at that time in Holland but what came by means of the English all was brought to that Port as to the center of the Province and the most convenient place for them Nevertheless one of the most considerable Magistrates of Rotterdam so powerfully assisted those that were well affected towards the Peace that they gained almost all the voices of Holland The rest of the Provinces have found it always to be so much their interest to follow the example of that Province in matters of greatest importance that they still acknowledg that they owe their last preservation to its prudent conduct The Provinces of Guelderland Vtricht and Overyssel in which the Prince of Orange has acquired a great authority since the French King forsook his Conquests there durst not openly declare for peace because it evidently appeared to be contrary to the interests of that Prince but they referred themselves to what Holland should think fit to be done concerning that great affair The effect of all these Declarations was That the Hier Beverning received orders from the States-General secretly to acquaint the French Ambassadors that they accepted the conditions which that King was pleased to grant to them This Ambassador that he might act according to the intention of his Superiors who would not allarm their Allies gave the Count d' Avaux notice that he earnestly desired to discourse with him in private and that for that end he would fetch a walk alone upon the Rampart of the Town about seven a Clock in the morning because at that time no body would be there The Count d' Avaux failed not to be there and had an hours conference with him after which he gave his Colleagues an account of the result of that discourse which gave occasion to the Dispatches whereby the King was informed of the good disposition of the States General in consideration whereof his Majesty granted them ten days longer than the tenth of May as they had desired that during that time they might endeavour to perswade their Allies to accept of the conditions proposed as themselves had done The Marquess of Fuentes arrived at Nimueguen the sixth of May he is Son to the Ambassador of the same name who was in France after the Kings Marriage he came from Venice where he had resided Ambassador thirteen years and the Court of Spain called him thence that they might employ him in England but it was believed that the nature of those important affairs which were then treating at London was the cause why the Duke of Villa Hermosa detained him at Brussels that he might send him to Nimueguen there to fill the place of second Ambassador The Peace began to be so certain in Holland that the joy of the people appeared in all places who at the Hague expressed the same by shouting God save the States-General and the Prince of Orange the Peace is concluded It was not so at Nimueguen where the Confederates were troubled because they saw the effect which the conditions offered by the French King were like to produce They declared to the Mediators That it was impossible an affair of so great importance as that of the Peace could be resolved and concluded in so short a time as the French King had prefixed On the 20 of May a Courier brought to Nimueguen a copy of the Letter which the French King wrote to the States-General from the Camp at St. Denis The 18th the King acquainted them that with pleasure he was informed that they had sentiments conform to the sincere desire which he had of contributing all that could conduce to the establishing of Peace whilst he enjoyed the advantages that his Arms had procured to him and which he might still expect in the sequel of the War By the same Letter the King granted to the States-General the seventh Article of the Treaty of Commerce about which the Ambassadors had not agreed at Nimueguen and that he might fully remove the apprehensions they were in of the loss of Flanders his Majesty promised That so soon as by a Treaty concluded upon the conditions proposed they should return to his ancient Alliance and oblige themselves to be Neutral during the course of the War he would still in consideration of them grant the same conditions to Spain and that in the mean time he should not attack any place in the Low-countries but that he should always be ready to grant them that Barriere which they judged so necessary for their repose That if they thought fit to send Deputies unto him they should find him in the Neighbourhood of Ghent until the twenty-seventh of that Month. So soon as that Letter came to Nimueguen the Count d' Avaux went with two Coaches and all his Retinue to give the Dutch Ambassadors notice of the same The noise of this Letter and that publick visit which much rejoiced the people gave an alarm to the Ministers of the Confederates Every one of them dispatched Couriers the same day clearly perceiving that the conduct of the French would infallibly produce the effect which his Majesty expected from the States-General This beginning of Negotiation gave so large a subject to the conferences of the Confederates that the meetings which for a long time they had held were at that time doubled That Letter of the French Kings was the same day brought to the States-General by a Trumpeter whom his Majesty sent to the Hague and was there received with all the demonstrations of joy The States after four days consultation on the 25th sent their Answer by one of their Trumpeters whom the Kings Trumpeter conducted to the Camp They expressed in few words the profound respect wherewith they had received the Letter which his Majesty had done them the honour to write to them and testified the exceeding joy which they conceived from the sincere desire that his Majesty had of contributing to the peace of Europe humbly beseeching him to give credit to the Hier Beverning their Extraordinary Ambassador whom they would send to his Majesty to inform him how desirous they were of giving him fresh assurances of their sincere intentions for the Peace The Dutch Ambassadors having on the 26th received a copy of the answer of the States-General gave it to the French Ambassadors who sent it to the King by the same Courier who brought the copy of his Majesties Letter to Nimueguen his Majesty was well satisfied to find therein that the States-General fully corresponded with the inclination that he had for the Peace At the same time the Heer Beverning received orders to go within a few days and wait upon the King that he might be more
not incline them to embrace the conditions offered by the King it being unjust that his Majesty in the condition that his forces were in should lose the occasions of action and should engage himself of new as he had already done by the Letter of the 18th of the foregoing Month. But to evidence the sincerity of his intentions his Majesty at the same time gave orders to the Mareshal of Luxembourg General of his Army not to attack any place during all that time and to stay for the answer of the States in the Neighbourhood of Brussels The good disposition that the King of England seemed to be in at that time contributed much to the advancement of the Peace The Heer Beverning who came to the Camp from London brought word that the King of England approved all the proceedings that the Dutch had made towards the Peace And by the Harangue that his Majesty of Great Britain made to the Parliament the third of June he declared that none were to be blamed but the House of Commons if he could not engage in the War And the Chancellor told the whole Parliament that their manner of acting could not but provoke a powerful Prince who might resent it and for that reason that they ought to strengthen themselves at home and abroad for their own security against all kind of attempts In the mean time the Confederates set all Engines at work to incline the King of England to favour their interests The Marquess of Borgomanero Envoy Extraordinary from Spain at that Court on the fifth of June represented to his Majesty of Great Britain how necessary it was that he should send his Fleet and Army towards the Low-countries for a curb to the common enemy and a Guard to all Christendom against the oppression and ruin wherewith it was threatned by the most Christian King and how advantageous it would be for his Majesty to make a League offensive and defensive with the Catholick King his Master and the Emperour who would prove his constant Allies in all the concerns of the common cause The Ambassadors of the Confederates held long and frequent conferences at Nimueguen but they found it difficult to agree upon the answer that they were to give upon the communication which the Ambassadors of the States-General had made to them of the Memoir that the French King had given to the Heer Beverning and whereupon the Ambassadors urged their resolution that they might take their measures accordingly at length all of them gave their Answers in their Conference of the tenth The Imperial Ambassadors gave it in Latin and very long but the purport of all was that they expected from the candour and equity of the States-General that they would do nothing to the prejudice of the Emperour the Empire and all the Confederates who were only engaged in the present War for the preservation of the Vnited-Provinces which the States themselves knew sufficiently without being put in mind of it That they had to do with an enemy whose design was only to divide the Confederates that he might the more easily surprize them all That if there was an absolute necessity that they must make Peace the Emperour offered to concur with them in it upon fair and honest conditions but that they would not take such precipitate resolutions as were demanded by the enemy That they well perceived the design was only to throw them upon a precipice since they were not so much as allowed to treat of those matters without the decision of which no Peace could ever be had That they intreated them not to be over-hasty That the general Peace was ruined if France perceived that the States-General had a design to treat separately assuring them that when the Emperour should make Peace he would not be less careful of the needs of the Vnited Provinces and Low-countries than he had been zealous in undertaking and maintaining the War for their defence The Ambassador of Denmark made answer on the same subject That he believed that the States-General would never do any thing to the disadvantage of his Danish Majesty who had exposed his person and spent his revenues to comply with the engagements into which he had entered with them That if they were absolutely obliged to accept of Peace they expected that they would not do any thing that might force those whose affairs were in a better posture to accept of absolute conditions That it was not fit that the constancy which the French shewed to their Allies should triumph over the firmness of their Union that they ought to guard against the inconveniencies that the least precipitancy might plunge them into and that provided the King his Master found his security in a Treaty he would sacrifice all his interests to the publick weal. The Ambassador of Brandenbourg assured himself that the States-General would promise nothing to the French King that might be contrary to the League that the Elector his Master had with them since he had neither spared his Blood nor Countries to preserve their Republick from utter ruin and that far less they would conclude a Peace with France till they first procured his Master the satisfaction they had promised him by their Treaty of Alliance That as to the rest his Electoral Highness desired nothing more than a reasonable Peace for procuring whereof he should always make appear his moderation and the respect he had to the urgent reasons which the States-General pretended for concluding of Peace Whilst the Confederates made all these Remonstrances to the Ambassadors of the States-General at Nimueguen it was known that the Spaniards declared at the Hague that they accepted the conditions offered by France and as the Deputies of the States-General in their Memoirs presented to the Duke de Villa Hermosa alledged the weakness of Spain as one of the strongest reasons that disabled them longer to continue the War so upon this occasion the Spaniards failed not to do the like and to impute the necessity they were in of accepting the Peace on the inability of the States-General of supporting any longer the charge and burden of so great a War The Imperialists in the mean time and all the Ministers of the Northern Princes exclaimed against the inclination that the Spaniards and Dutch had to so disadvantageous a Peace they made their own interpretations of the French Kings condescensions saying that France laid snares for them which they could not discover until they were out of condition of avoiding them or that otherwise there must needs be some internal weakness in the forces of France how formidable soever they appeared that standing of it out would do the business and that it was too base to submit to an absolute Law whilst they were not yet out of hopes of gaining those advantages that would render their condition better The Dutch who saw evidently by the Declarations of the Ambassadors of their Confederates that their design was to give no positive answer
whilst no difficulty appeared on either side of a sudden there was one started at Nimueguen which not only put a stop to the signing of the Treaty but had almost quite broke it off In the project of the Treaty there was no mention made of the time wherein the French King was to deliver up the places to the Crown of Spain and States-General being a thing not at all mentioned in the Conditions The King pretended that it was not to be done till after the General Peace and the full satisfaction of Sueden in prospect whereof his Majesty condescended so much on his part Spain and the States-General understood that the restitution of places ought to be immediately after the ratification of the Treaties Nevertheless the Negotiation was managed in that manner until the very day before the Treaty was to be signed without any thoughts of a clear explanation of that point The Marquess de los Balbases was the first that demanded an Explication as to the time of the restitution of the places The French Ambassadors suspected several persons for having given occasion to that Ambassador to start the question However it were the Marquess de los Balbases had no sooner received that Umbrage but that he went to the Dutch Ambassadors to inquire their opinions on that subject These answered that if the French pretended to delay the restitution beyond the exchange of the ratifications it was a thing not meant by them and immediately they went to desire the French Ambassadors to give them their Explication which they would send to the States-General by an Express The Ambassadors of France told them that the satisfaction of Sueden being the first of the Conditions proposed by the King their Master without which his Majesty would have declared that he could not condescend to peace it behoved that the Powers which accepted these conditions should contribute what in them lay to procure satisfaction to Sueden and that the retention of Places was the easiest means which the King had in his hands for obtaining it without demanding that the same Powers who only accepted the conditions of peace that they might so soon as they could free themselves from the misfortunes of War should engage any other ways for procuring that satisfaction Notwithstanding all the Reasons that were alledged to justifie the conduct of the French King the Heer Beverning having received an answer from the States-General declared to the French Ambassadors on the 25th that he could not sign the Peace if the King did not remit his pretensions But the French Ambassadors having no power to desist it behoved them to stay for new Orders from the Court. The Ministers of the Confederates and all the ill affected who with extream trouble saw that the Peace with the Dutch which was to be followed with that with Spain was upon the point of being signed failed not to make their best of that conjuncture which favoured their designs and to do all they could to make the Dutch suspect the sincerity of France It was the easier for them to succeed in this that those very men who in the States had been the chief promoters of the Peace exclaimed most against that new pretention For seeing they were not willing to be suspected to have yielded to snares wherewith they might have been surprized they thought themselves obliged to appear the most stedfast and most resolute wholly to break off the Treaty rather than to condescend to that point It is certain that as the generosity of the French King towards the States-General the amity which his Majesty expressed for them in his Letters and his condescensions to a Peace with them when they had greatest cause of fear had on the one hand intirely gained the hearts of the Vnited Provinces so on the other hand the enemies of France and those that envied its growth and greatness made so good use of that juncture to fill the peoples minds with distrust that they began in good earnest to believe that the French acted not sincerely with them and that every Article of the Treaty contained some meaning disadvantageous to their Country The Ambassadors of France in the mean time declared to those of the States-General on the 30th that they were ready to sign the Peace upon the Conditions that were stipulated betwixt them and that seeing they had not mentioned to them the time of the restitution of Maestricht until the 25th neither could they any sooner give their Master advice of the new clause that they would have added to the article which themselves had framed concerning that restitution but that in the mean time they offered to sign the Treaties of Peace and Commerce in the manner as was agreed upon that they might make it appear to the world that they desired not to delay for one day the signing of a Peace which all the people so impatiently longed for As to Spain the same Ambassadors said That if that Crown which had not as yet openly accepted neither the Peace nor Truce did formally declare that without delay they embraced Peace upon the Conditions proposed and did chuse one of the Alternatives touching Dinant and Charlemont it should appear that the King their Master desired nothing more than that Christendom should enjoy the repose which it might expect from his promises During these Debates the Heer Odyke second Ambassador from the States-General who had not hitherto stayed above two or three days at a time in Nimueguen came thither with his whole family He is of the House of Nassau by Prince Maurice Brother of Prince Henry Grandfather to the Prince of Orange to whose Interests he is wholly devoted and not without reason for he receives many favours from him and has a considerable Revenue by reason that being the chief of the Nobles of Zealand in place of the Prince of Orange he represents the Nobility in the States and Council of that Province He is well bred and magnificent loving company and pleasures and has a particular dexterity in inventing of them There were still some hopes that the difficulties which put a stop to the signing of the Peace would be taken away but by a Courier from the French Court who arrived July 10.1678 the French Ambas having received Order to signifie to the Dutch that the King would not remit any as thing to the detention of the places that he might obtain satisfaction to Sueden one could not tell what to think of the Peace Whilst affairs were in this doubtful condition news was brought to Nimueguen that on the sixth of July there had happened at the Bridge of Reinfield a sharp conflict betwixt a great Detachment of the French Army and a like number of their enemies who were so smartly attacked in their Trenches and so briskly drove upon the Bridg that many of them were killed and drowned with some of their Generals in so much that if the Bridg had not been quickly set on fire the same
presently obeyed so surprized the Spaniards and especially the Ladies that for some time there was not a word spoken at Table The Heer Odyke thought himself obliged to rise from Table and reassume the Ladies by inviting them to eat but he was no sooner up but that the Spaniards and Company rose likewise The Marq. de los Balbases with his whole Family and the Marquess de la Fuente took leave of the Company at the very instant and went home in four Coaches without telling why or informing themselves of the reason of that proceeding The Spanish Ambassadors passed by the House of the Mareshal d' Estrades which was not twelve-score paces distant from thence where all the Livery-men belonging to the French Ambassadors were shut up for fear of some disorder to which they were observed to be much inclined Three Coaches had already past when some of those who were in the fourth with Arms fired a Carabin at the Gate of the Mareshal d' Estrades his House Perhaps they did it only in bravado thinking they might safely do it since they saw the Gate shut but at this shot whereof the Bullets left impression on the Gate all the Servants that were in the House finding themselves insulted over snatched up what Arms they could find opened the Gate and ran after the Coaches who again firing upon them were answered in the same kind The French Ambassadors were in the mean time in Discourse with the Heer Odyke and complained of the extraordinary carriage of the Spaniards and of their numerous attendants but the Gentlemen who were with them having heard the first shots ran thither in all haste and coming up with those Servants that were about to attack the Coaches with much ado stopt them They came certainly in the nick of time for finding none on their side wounded and none to engage with but Coaches wherein were so many Ladies of quality amongst whom was the Dutchess of St. Peter ready to be brought to bed they so ordered the matter by threatening their people that the tumult went no farther The Spaniards had cause of fear at that time their Lacqueys threw away their Flamboys and their Coachmen put to a gallop through the Market-place and along a descending Street at the end whereof they lodged The whole Town was alarmed at the noise of shot about two of the Clock in the morning The Town-guard sent the Court of Guard and did not appear and all people ran to the windows But a stop was put to this tumult in a trice and amongst so many people there were none but a Spanish Coachman wounded in the foot and a French Lacquey in the hand The Mediators and especially the Nuncio employed themselves next day to compose that difference The Spaniards would never confess publickly that they were the aggressors Nevertheless seeing it was but a scuffle amongst Servants it was consented to on either hand that the French Ambassadors and the Marquess de los Balbases should each of them send to the Nuncio and the Lord Ambassador Jenkins a Gentleman with some Servants in Livery to be delivered into their hands and to intreat them to cause what punishment they thought fit to be inflicted on them for transgressing the Orders that were made against their carrying of Arms. But seeing the French Ambassadors had not owned the Marquess de la Fuente for an Ambassador they would not suffer him to make any kind of satisfaction though his Servants were known to have been the first Authors of that disorder August 1678 this was put in execution the third of August but the Spanish Ladies having been extreamly discomposed by an accident which they unawares expected the French Ambassadors sent to compliment them severally The Gentleman whom they sent on that errand spoke to the Marchioness de los Balbases her Husband being present to this effect in Italian That the Ambassadors his Masters were vexed that an unexpected accident should have given her Ladiship any trouble but that they doubted not but as she was perswaded that they had always endeavoured to entertain good correspondence so she did not believe but that they likewise condemned the least thing that might displease her and whatever was inconsistent with the respect that they professed to have for persons of her quality That Gentleman made such another compliment to the Dutchess of St. Peter and the Marchioness de Quintana and some days after the Assemblies for diversion which were thought wholly laid aside began to be kept again as before At that time the Heer Boreel Envoy Extraordinary from the States-General arrived at Nimueguen his arrival was taken as a good presage for the Peace of Holland for the States as I have said had employed him to incline the Duke de Villa Hermosa to accept the Conditions proposed by the French King And the interest of the Town of Amsterdam the place of his birth being very dear unto him it was not doubted but that he was very zealous for the Peace The Mareshal of Luxembourg sent at the same time to Nimueguen the Sieur de Villevart Captain of his Guards to make a Protestation to the Mediators against the detention of the Dutchy of Luxembourg which falling to the heir-female ought to belong to him in right of his Wife as he proved by her Genealogy and by the Laws and Customs of that Dutchy The Ambassador of Brandenbourg perceiving by the copy of the Memoir which the French Ambassadors had given to the Dutch for justifying the detention of the Places that the French King had openly declared that it was his design to make use of them for carrying the War into the Dominions of the Elector his Master in favours of Sueden made a long remonstrance which he gave to the Ambassadors of the States-General He represented to them that his Master their neighbour and good friend had ventured all and suffered much for the preservation and settlement of their Republick that he had grounds to hope that the States-General would not comply with so pernicious designs contrary to the faith of their Treaties but on the contrary that they would be no less careful to procure a Barrier on the side of the Rhine than they had been for obtaining one in Flanders and that the preservation of the Country of Cleves was no less necessary for their security than the frontiers of their own Country On the second of August the French Ambassadors received Orders from Court by an Express to make new Instances to the States-General to incline them to send Deputies to Ghent assuring them that they should there find his Majesty as well disposed as they could desire to surmount all obstacles that hindered the conclusion of the Peace It was generally believed that the French King did really design to remove all those difficulties but all the Confederates did equally bestir themselves to hinder the States from complying with his Majesties intentions and amongst the other reasons that they alledged to take
them off from sending Deputies the disgrace which they said it was that their Peace was not treated by their Ambassadors in the general Assembly at Nimueguen made not the smallest impression on their minds In so much that by the answer which the Ambassadors and Envoy Extraordinary made on the 4th no hopes appeared of finding any expedient of removing the impediment that retarded the Peace They said that they were overjoyed to see that the King still testified a sincere inclination for the Peace but it extreamly troubled them that they found him so wedded to the satisfaction of Sueden of which neither Spain nor the States possessed any thing of that which was to be the greatest part of it that they would always profess the profound respect they had for his Majesty and that they would comply with him in any thing he could desire of them but that they perceived not to what purpose it could be to send Deputies either to St. Quentin or Ghent since they had no expedient to offer but the evacuation of the Places that if it pleased his Majesty to propose any one for facilitating the conclusion of the Peace they were ready to sign it that they had not made any contrary engagements but with this respect to his Majesty that they should take no effect unless that he refused to evacuate the places upon the exchange of the Ratifications The Confederates were not a little troubled to see that a word of the French King could conclude a Peace which overthrew all their projects and banished those hopes wherewith they still flattered themselves But that King had so openly declared that he made but one and the same affair of the interests of Sueden and his own that unless that Crown would desist he could not abandon the engagement he had taken to procure its satisfaction Seeing the Confederates were perswaded that an obstacle clogged with such conditions could not easily be removed and the rather that there remained but five days of the time that the States had prefixed for entering into a League with England from which they could not flinch back they despaired not of seeing the Dutch Peace evanish In the mean time the news that was brought to Nimueguen of the birth of the Archduke filled them all with joy but especially the Imperialists who expressed it by publick rejoicing and largesses The French Ambassadors in the mean while received a Courier from Court and according to the Instructions that he brought them they framed the Memoir of the 6th whereby they declared to the Ambassadors of the States-General that seeing the King had no design in the retention of the places but to comply with the Ambassadors of Sueden who judged it necessary for the re-establishment of their affairs his Majesty was willing to desist from that pretension now that the same Ambassadors consented to it but in that Memoir the French Ambassadors added that the States-General should send Deputies to their King as well for adjusting the means of warranting the obligation of Neutrality into which they promised that Spain should enter as to concert expedients for procuring the satisfaction of Sueden Distrust had so seized the minds of some and was so well fomented by those who had cause to be afraid of that Peace that it was not very strange that that Proposition how simple soever it was occasion'd new jealousies in the Dutch They were afraid to be drawn in farther than they desired said that since the King was pleased to remove the great impediment which hindered the Peace the French Ambassadors could no longer persist in demanding that they should send Deputies to his Majesty unless they had some reasons which concealed designs quite different from the pretext they took so that they seemed further off than they were before The same Courier brought back the Declaration which the Suedish Ambassadors had made to the French the 17. of July concerning their desisting from the pretension of retaining the places but they were unwilling to communicate the same until they knew whether the King approved of it in the form that it was drawn up in That Declaration bore That notwithstanding the just and general design of the French King to procure satisfaction to the King their Master yet they left it to his Majesties consideration whether after all the oppositions that he met with in it it was better to delay the restitution of the places in prospect of a general peace than to grant it for obtaining a separate peace with Spain and Holland That for their own parts who had no free correspondence with the King their Master and had instructions in general to conform to the pleasure of France they were assured that the King of Sueden would be satisfied with what his most Christian Majesty thought fit to resolve upon not doubting but that his Royal prudence could find out means enough as suitable to his Glory and the re-establishment of his Ally as the retention of places was To this the Ambassadors added 7. reasons to evince that it was the common Interest of both Crowns instantly to conclude a separate peace with Spain and Holland to take off those two Powers which supported their Enemies and by seven other reasons they made appear That his most Christian Majesty might have no less renown in accomplishing his designs by other means that might make evident to the world the sincerity of his intentions and which at the same time might give him opportunity to make the ill affected who endeavoured to render them suspected sensible of his resentment By this it seemed that the Suedish Ambassadors foresaw the future as well as they could at the present time however it be they clearly saw that the obstacles which hinder'd the peace were otherways insuperable and since they were obliged to consent to the evacuation of the places they might hope that the French King would not want other means of procuring full satisfaction to the King of Sueden Nevertheless that Prince found the retention of places of such importance to the re-establishment of his affairs that not being informed in time of the urgent reasons which obliged his Ambassadors to consent to the waving of that pretension he professed himself much offended at their conduct The Count of Provana Envoy from the Dutchess of Savoy arrived at Nimueguen on the eigth he came to demand of the Spaniards the portion of the Infanta Catharina Great Grandmother to the young Duke of Savoy or at least he came to have that debt owned by an Article of the Treaty which was to be made betwixt France and Spain as it was at the Treaty of Munster and the Pyrenean What repugnancy soever he met with on the Spanish part the French obtained him his demand Ambassador Temple finding the term which the States-General had taken before they would enter into the Engagements of the Treaty that he had signed with them now to draw near came on the eighth to Nimueguen All men
from his Danish Majesty at Nimueguen acquainted M. Colbert on the 26. with the Conference that was to be held at Louden where M. de Feuquieres Ambassador from his Most Christian Majesty in Sueden was to meet the Minister of the King of Denmark The Suedish Ratification of the Treaty of Peace betwixt that Crown and the Bishop of Munster was at that time brought to Nimueguen but it was not as yet exchanged because of some difficulties that were found in the Treaty which was signed the 22. of March The French Forces began already to spread in the Marck of Brandenbourg and there came daily new Troops to Wesel to encrease the Army which the Mareshal de Crequi was to command Equipage Artillery and all necessary Ammunition were continually brought and the French used the greater diligence to put themselves in a condition of making some enterprise because M. Meinders was not at all urgent in his Negotiation with the King He spake but indifferently as to that concern and said that the Elector his Master could not make peace if Stetin and the countrey beyond the Oder were not given up to him Most of the Princes of Germany offered their offices for the promoting of that Peace The Elector of Saxony offered his Mediation but the Letter which he wrote to the French King upon that subject having been given by M. de Blasper to M Colbert to be sent to his Majesty that Ambassador refused to do it seeing the Elector of Brandenbourg had a Minister at Court who might discharge that office The Princes of Brunswick made also some instances in favour also of his Electoral Highness that they might procure a delay in the Military executions seeming to be persuaded that that peace would not fail to give the King all kind of satisfaction It was nevertheless a rare thing to see that it behoved the French Ambassadors to press the Imperialists to consent to the easing of the Empire by consummating of the peace For this end M. Colbert thought a second Conference necessary in which the Imperialists would not maintain the reasons which they had alledged in the former without palpable prevarication He therefore on the second of June 1679. proposed to the Mediators that they would bring about that Conferenee in which it would be convenient that all the Ministers of the Prinees of the Empire at Nimueguen might be present to the end it might appear whether the Emperor or French King were the cause of the delay of that performance on which the repose of so many people depended But the Emperors Ambassadors thinking that a Conference in presence of the Ministers of the Princes of the Empire would injure the Authority of his Imperial Majesty absolutely refused it saying that the Decree which they had from the Dyet at Ratisbon sufficiently authorised the Emperor to act as his Imperial Majesty should think fitting touching the concerns of the Peace and present War At that time the Minister of the Elector of Cologn presented a Memoir to the Mediators demanding that Bonne might be evacuated by the Imperial Garison and at the same time published the Resolution which the Dyet at Ratisbon had taken the 22. of the foregoing Month whereby the Emperor was entreated to command that the places in the Empire possessed by the Imperial Troops might be evacuated so that the Imperialins could not refuse a second Conference upon that occasion at the Town-hall But for all that it was not possible to bring them to condescend to the evacuation of the places pretending that they had not as yet had any advice of that result of the Dyet of the Empire Nevertheless in regard of the instance that had been made by the Minister of the Elector of Cologn they offered to draw all the Forces out of his Countrey provided that the French drew theirs out of the Countreys of Liege and Juliers M. Colbert could not condescend to that Proposition but he offered to maintain with all exactness at the Kings charges the Garisons of the places which his Majesty had reserved in the Empire to be employed for procuring of the Peace of the North and the satisfaction of Sueden The Imperial Ambassadors answered That his most Christian Majesty was obliged to do that from the very day that the Ratifications of the Peace were exchanged And so that second Conference had no better success than the former That which most vexed the Imperialists was that they could not obtain by the Peace that the French King should restore the Ten Towns of Alsatia into the condition they were in before the War that his Majesty should draw out his Garisons and not possess them as belonging to him in propriety And therefore seeing that stuck extreamly in their heart they intended when they made the Treaty for consummating the Peace to have comprehended those Ten Towns amongst the places which France ought to evacuate and in prospect of that they put them into the List which at that time they gave of the places of the Empire from whence the King was to remove his Forces M. Colbert answered in general that his Majesty was ready to draw out his Garisons from all the places which they held in the Empire excepting those that were made over to France by the Treaties of Munster and Nimueguen That Answer gave no ground to the Imperialists to hope that they might obtain by that Negotiation what they could not gain by the Treaty of Peace though they alledged that the Treaty of Munster was not so express concerning the Cession of the Ten Towns of Alsatia but that an Article of the same Treaty seemed to contradict what was clearly explained in another place concerning that Cession But the Imperialists at length waving that pretension declared on the 15th that they consented that France should evacuate all those places which their Forces held in the Empire excepting those that had been yielded to them by the Treaties of Munster and Nimueguen and that on their part they were ready to evacuate not only Bonne but also Treves and Keyserflatern in compliance with the instances that were made to that effect by the Electors of Cologne Treves and the Palatin but that for the other places of the Empire they still expected the resolution of the Diet of Ratisbone affirming that they doubted not but that the Emperor would comply with the desire of the States of the Empire That Answer being by the Mediators communicated to M. Colbert on the 16th that Ambassador saw so little disposition on the part of the Imperialists to a sincere performance of the 27th Article of the Treaty of Peace that he held to the last declaration which he had made in respect that the Emperor who was much more concerned than France to make that evacuation ought likewise to be more inclined to it to the end that some difficulties which apparently had no other scope but the Emperors particular advantage might no longer retard the general ease of
the States of the Empire The French Army was in the neighborhood of Minden and began to straiten that place where General Spaen pretended to make a vigorous resistance But the Mareshal de Crequi made Monsieur Calvo pass the Weser on the 30th with a party of Horse and Foot on a Bridge of Boats which he had caused to be made whil'st he himself with a Body of Horse went to cross it at a Ford which he passed partly swimming under the Guns of a Castle and in sight of the Enemies Trenches The Castle was afterward taken by the Foot commanded by the Marquess of Vxelles At the same time the Mareshal de Crequi who passed the River only with an intent to oblige the Countrey to pay the Contributions which he had demanded perceiving that General Spaen was come out of the Town with above Three thousand men and some Field-pieces to dispute the passage of the River briskly attacqued and defeated that Party General Spaen was beat back to Minden with considerable loss of men killed and above four hundred taken prisoners so that the Elector of Brandenbourg had cause to be fully convinced that nothing but a Peace could secure him from the miseries which the continuation of the War threatned This was the last action that put an end to so great a War and if the Elector of Brandenbourg had hastened but a few days the Negotiation of the Peace which was signed at St. Germans the day before the news had come in time to have saved a great many brave men by preventing that Engagement The re-establishment of the Treaties of Westphalia was the ground-work and chief Article of the peace of Brandenbourg without any derogation from them except that for avoiding the differences that arise commonly amongst Princes about the confusion of limits Sueden yielded to the Elector of Brandenbourg the Territories which that King possessed beyond the Oder before the War excepting the Towns of Dam and Golnau with their dependencies his Electoral Highness being in the mean time to retain possession of Golnau until the Crown of Sueden should pay him the sum of fifty thousand Crowns The King of Sueden likewise gave up the half of the Tole and Customs which are raised at the Port of the Town of Colberg and the other Ports of the Electoral Pomerania and which were granted by the Treaty of Stettin in the year 1653. But Sueden had still the Soveraignty of the River of Oder the Elector of Brandenbourg having no power to settle any Tole there That Prince was not exempted from the clause which was common to all the other Princes who had made their peace with France to wit that he could not directly nor indirectly assist the King of Denmark his Ally if he continued to make war against Sueden But the French King as an effect of his good will and for the good of the peace promised by a separate Article to pay or cause to be paid to the Elector the sum of Three hundred thousand crowns in some manner to reimburse the charges he had been at during the course of the War There remained now no Negotiation of importance to be managed at Nimueguen but that of the Treaty for fulfilling of the peace concluded betwixt the Emperor and France for the Conferences that were on foot at Louden in Schonen or rather the Negotiation that M. de Meyerkron had begun at the French Court gave hopes that ere long the peace would be concluded betwixt Sueden and Denmark Upon design of hastning the conclusion of that peace a considerable detachment of Cavalry commanded by the Marquess of Joyense marched through the Territories of the Elector of Brandenbourg into the Counties of Oldenbourg and Delmenhurst and put all that Countrey under contribution The Count D' Espense passed at that time through Nimueguen going with the Treaty to the Elector of Brandenbourg and though that peace was signed at St. Germans yet the Ratifications of it were exchanged at Nimueguen the 22. of July 1679. so that nothing now detained M. Colbert at Nimueguen but the concluding with the Imperialists the Treaty for fulfilling the peace Yet he found them not as yet disposed to end that business quickly though the conclusion of it was so necessary for the welfare and repose of the Empire that without the same the peace was of no use at all to it Matters standing thus M. Colbert thought that it behoved him to put a little more heat into the Imperialists than he perceived there was and to bring them to his hand by all ways imaginable He found none more proper nor more natural than to feign a sudden departure for which he said he had received Orders and in that design he sent away a good part of his Equipage and Servants The Imperial Ambassadors made no doubt but that he had such Orders as he said and the Nuncio bestirred himself with the zeal of a true Mediator in solliciting the Imperialists to the end that so many people ruined by the miseries of War might not be longer without tasting the fruit of peace These considerations at length prevailed with the Emperor's Ambassadors for tho' they had been as stiff as to the conclusion of the Treaty of performance as they had been in respect of that of the peace it self yet they well perceived that the endeavours which they had heretofore used for explaining in their favour in the Treaty of Nimueguen what they found advantageous for France in the Treaty of Munster having only tended to confirm the French pretensions as to the Soveraignty of the ten Towns of Alsatia they might likewise be assured that they lost time in pretending to gain by the Treaty of Performance more than they could by the Treaty of Peace so that seeing M. Colbert had prefixed a day for his departure they consented to sign the Treaty rather than to leave so great a work imperfect By that Treaty which was signed the 17. the evacuation was on both sides to be made the 20th of August from all places in general which by the Treaties of Westphalia and Nimueguen belonged neither to his Imperial Majesty nor to the French King excepting eight places mentioned in the 8th Article of the Treaty of Peace signed at Nimueguen the 5th of February which the King was to possess in the Empire until the conclusion of the peace of the North. Seeing this Treaty was to take effect without any need of giving or exchanging of Ratifications it was no sooner signed but that M. Colbert left Nimueguen that he might return to France by the way of Holland So that now it may be said that the Assembly at Nimueguen ended since the chief party left it and that there was no more to be treated there Nevertheless the Mediators part of the Imperialists and Spaniards the Ambassadors of Sueden and of the States General made a little longer stay at Nimueguen there to sign the Treaties betwixt Spain and Sueden Sueden and the States
a Squadron of about thirty Ships The half-free Ships are Vessels of about One hundred Tuns burden their priviledges and number are so small that they cannot be very prejudicial to the Dutch Trade Nevertheless the Dutch found that all these priviledged Vessels might carry away the greatest part of the Trade of the Baltick and therefore the States insisted vigorously upon the abrogation of all those priviledges as contrary to the equality of advantage which the subjects of both Nations were to enjoy But in that debate the same mean was taken which served to remove the former difficulty and it was agreed upon that these Vessels should only enjoy their exemptions in the Territories of the Kingdom of Sueden and Finland and that in the other Provinces on the Baltick-sea depending on the Crown of Sueden there should be no distinction between Suedish Ships and Dutch It could not be believed after this that any new difficulty could retard the conclusion of the Treaty of Commerce whereof the Negotiation had lasted above a year Nevertheless there happened one which put a full stop to the affair The Ambassadors of the States-General had put in the 7th Article of their project That the subjects on either side should be used as the Nation in greatest friendship ut quaeque gens amicissima The Suedes took occasion from this to demand a freedom from the duties which the Dutch had imposed upon the Suedish commodities that pass the Sound and the rather because that imposition was never laid on till the Suedes had obtained from the Danes by Treaties concluded to their advantage and exemption from part of the duties that are exacted in the Sound The truth is that the States to hinder that exemption from being prejudicial to the trade of their subjects who enjoy not the same priviledg setled then in their Countrey upon those that had the priviledg of the Sound and Imposition almost equivalent to that Exemption The Dutch said That the equality which ought to be observed in the Trade of the two Nations was not hurt by that kind of compensation and alledged that it was so little contrary to it that in all the Treaties which had been concluded in the long time since these duties were imposed the abrogation of them was never thought upon when other Treaties was made The Suedes however who would not lose to the profit of the Dutch what they obtained to the prejudice of Denmark stood firmly to that point so that the conferences at the Hague were broken up and the Count D' Avaux could not promise himself to renew them again on that subject with the same success that they had had in the other difficulties insomuch that M. Oliver Krants came back to Nimueguen Aug. 1679. where the Assembly being shortly after wholly dissolved the conclusion of these Treaties could no longer be prolonged which yet were not signed until the second of October the annulling of the Imposts laid on in Holland and the reduction of those of Sueden to the standard of the Treaty of 1640. remaining undecided and referred to other conferences which were to be held at the Hague for adjusting these affairs within eighteen Months after the signing of the Treaty In the mean time M. de Mayerkroon who had been for some time at the French Court perceiving that the conferences in Schonen did not advance the Negotiation of the peace betwixt Sueden and Denmark began to seem more inclined to conclude the Treaty of the King his Master tho' he had no cause to expect more advantageous conditions than those he had at first On the contrary experience and example made appear that it could not but be prejudicial to the King of Denmark to be the last in making his peace The French King on his part desiring nothing more than to correspond with that good disposition and to render the peace general by the conclusion of that of Denmark gave for that end on the 24th of August a full power to M. de Pompone and by that means within a few days the Treaty was concluded betwixt his Majesty and the Kings of Sueden and Denmark and was signed at St. Germans the second of September on the same conditions that the King had always proposed for the full satisfaction of his Ally It is known that his Majesty declared from the beginning That he could not make peace with the King of Denmark but upon condition of a full restitu ion to Sueden The delays and difficulties that were made thereupon moved not his Majesty to abate any thing of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhaghen and Westphalia and these Treaties were the ground-work of the peace of Denmark in the fourth Article whereof his Danish Majesty declared That in consideration of his most Christian Majesty he consented that the Crown of Sueden be restored to all that it possessed before the War and to all the Territories States Provinces Towns and places that have been yielded up and acquired by those three Treaties and by consequent to all that the Danish Arms had possessed during that War As to the differences that heretofore happened betwixt the subjects of the two Nations by reason of the priviledges and exemptions which the Suedes as I said enjoy from a part of the duties that the King of Denmark raises in the Sound and in the Belt the most Christian King being uncertain whether or not the intention of the King of Sueden was that his subjects should any ways make use of their priviledges to the prejudice of the revenue of the K. of Denmark thought fit so to order affairs by that Treaty that Commissioners named by each party should meet three months after the exchange of the Ratifications and by the mediation of a Minister appointed by his Majesty adjust all these differences in an amicable way The Restauration of the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp having been one of the conditions on which the French King consented to this Peace it was likewise one of the greatest difficulties that happened in the carrying on of the Treaty That Prince was stript of all by the King of Denmark only for being an Ally to the King of Sueden and therefore ought to be restored to all again To which the King of Denmark as an evidence of the desire he had to put an end to the War with all expedition consented at the desire and requisition of the French King granting that the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp should enjoy his Territories Provinces Towns and Places in the same state as they were in at the signing of the Treaty with all the Soveraignty that belonged to him by virtue of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhagen and Westphalia That Prince could hardly pretend to more unless it were the damage that his Territories had suffered during the War by the vast sums of Money that the King of Denmark had raised therein as being one of the best Countries of all the North. The Elector of Brandenbourg the Princes of the
House of Brunswick and the Bishop of Munster who made their separate Treaties after that the Peace was concluded betwixt France and Holland received profitable testimonies of the desire that the French King had of giving repose to Europe for his Majesty was willing to ease them of part of the charges of the War by giving them large sums of Money in consideration of their good inclinations towards the Peace and particularly in favour to the King of Sueden who has not been wanting on his part to give considerable advantages to all these Princes But the King of Denmark is the only Prince who has not only reserved none of his Conquests but likewise the sole enemy of Sueden to whom France hath allowed no consideration for his charges Seeing the King of Denmark was at that time in a condition to demand Reason of the State of Hambourg in relation to several pretensions that he has upon that City and particularly concerning the Homage that he claims from it he drew all his Forces about that Town immediately after the conclusion of the Peace with Sueden The truth is his Danish Majesty had not not an Army strong enough to force such a City as Hambourg and the more because the Neighbouring Princes concerned themselves in its preservation But the King of Denmark coming at first as near to it as he pleased by reason of the neighborhood of Altena raised Batteries for his Artillery and Bombes with which he might easily have incommoded the Town October 1679 In this Instant the most Christian King wrote to the King of Denmark intreating him not to disturb the repose that the general Peace had given to all Europe almost and the Princes of the House of Brunswick who had already sent Forces into Hambourg to provide for its defence interposed vigorously for that accommodation which was provisionally concluded the first of November the Rights of the King of Denmark and of the City of Hambourg remaining as they were until that the point of Homage and the other differences which depended betwixt his Danish Majesty and that Town should in an amicable way be decided by course of Law November 1679 The chief condition of that agreement was an obligation by the Town of Hambourg to pay at Five Terms to his Danish Majesty the sum of Two hundred and twenty thousand Crowns in consideration whereof that King remitted the indignation he had conceived against that Town renounc'd the pretensions that he had to the Lands jointly possessed by Hambourg and Lubeck and promised to restore the Ships Goods Commodities and Inhabitants of Hambourg which had been seised by reason of these pretensions Thus ended that great War wherein almost all the Princes of Europe were engaged from the year 1672. But it was not enough for the good and repose of Europe that the general peace put an end to all the calamities of the War these mournful Scenes of so bloody a Tragedy required at length some pleasing Catastrophy which might sweeten the memory of past miseries and fill the people with more agreeable hopes Nothing was more proper to produce such an effect than the Marriage of the chief Princes who had had a share in the War seeing these new Alliances were sacred ties to render the Peace indissolvable No sooner had the King of Spain ratified the Peace with France but that he thought upon confirming it by a new Alliance with the French King so that though the Court of Spain were far engaged with the Emperor for the Marriage of the Imperial Princess with his Catholick Majesty yet it hindered not that Prince from converting all his thoughts towards France The Picture of Madamoiselle de Valois and the Royal qualities of that Princess made him resolve the last Spring to cause the Marquess de los Balbases to go from Nimueguen to the French Court in quallity of Ambassador extraordinary to demand her in Marriage That Minister went suddenly into France and in a private Audience which he had of the King about the beginning of May he demanded of his Majesty Madamoiselle in Marriage for the King his Master but his Majesty gave no answer to the Ambassador concerning an affair of that importance until the beginning of July at which time he declared that he granted Madamoiselle to the King of Spain That Kingdom being mindful that France had always given them good Queens the people were extreamly overjoyed at the news but the young Monarch especially who was deeply smitten with the merit of that Princess The Ceremony of the Marriage was performed at Fontain-bleau the last day of August with all the magnificence that could be expected from the French Court The Procuration which the King of Spain sent blank to be filled up with the name of him whom the King should think fit to nominate for espousing the Queen was given to the Prince of Conty who gave his Hand to that Princess in the name of his Catholick Majesty and the Queen sometime after took her Journey for Spain not without shedding of Tears which testified that the regret of leaving France was more sensible to her than the joy of possessing a Crown The Heroick qualities both of body and mind which met in the person of the Prince of Conty gained so much of the esteem and affection of his Majesty that he thought it not enough to give him a very special mark of it by making choice of him to espouse the Queen of Spain but shortly after gave him more sensible testimonies of the same by bestowing upon him in Marriage Madamoiselle de Blois whom his Majesty tenderly loves That Marriage was celebrated with so much splendour and with so universal approbation that the Court never appeared more magnificent nor better satisfied than upon that occasion The Marriage of the King of Sueden with the Princess Vlrica of Denmark was agreed upon before the rupture betwixt Sueden and Denmark by this last War yea even from that time stately Coaches and some things that were necessary for the Pomp of that Marriage were providing in France so that after the Peace was concluded betwixt those Two Kings it was not hard to make up that new Marriage But seeing those Princes had still a great deal to do to regulate affairs within and without their Kingdoms and especially the King of Sueden who was to retake possession of several Provinces and to give orders for setling them again in the condition that they were in before the War the consummation of that Marriage was delayed until the Spring In the mean time part of the Equipage for that Ceremony was preparing at Hambourg and Clothes and other things which were ordered to be made in France were expected from thence December 1679 The French Court also laid aside all thoughts of War Feasting and Divertisements were the dayly employment there and the Marriage of the Queen of Spain was hardly over when the King thought on that of the Dauphin Men cast their eyes on all the Princesses of Europe being curious to know for whom that great fortune was destin'd by Heaven but his Majesty pitched upon the Princess Anne Marie Christian of Bavaria for whom also the Dauphin seemed to have greatest inclination M. Colbert who was just returned from Nimueguen was sent into Bavaria to treat about the Marriage where he concluded all the Articles and signed the contract thereof the 30th of December Afterward the King sent the Duke of Crequi into Bavaria with presents for the Princess who being accompanied by Forty Gentlemen performed the journey by Post The Court at that time prepared for the Journey which the King designed in February to go meet the Dauphiness as far as Tholous where the ceremonies and confirmation of the Marriage were to be performed the Duke of Bavaria having espoused the Dauphiness in name of the Dauphin at Munichen The King in the mean time acquainted all neighbouring Princes with that Marriage by Letters which he wrote to them wherein it appears that the piety and great vertues wherewith that Princess is endowed have given his Majesty just cause to hope that that alliance will produce to France Princes that shall worthily answer the greatness of so August a Birth FINIS