Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	king_n	people_n	5,295	4	4.4420	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48266	Letters written by a French gentleman, giving a faithful and particular account of the transactions at the court of France, relating to the publick interest of Europe with historical and political reflexions on the ancient and present state of that kingdom / communicated by Monsieur Vassor.	Le Vassor, Michel, 1646-1718.	1695 (1695)	Wing L1795; ESTC R12280	36,438	62

Affairs is altered and nothing of moment is imparted to these They are too happy when His Majesty suffers them to pass some idle and tedious Hours at Versailles or to go to the Camp to be kill'd like private Soldiers Not only matters of State are not communicated to them but they are not suffer'd to be Masters even at home nor so much as consulted concerning the Marriage of their own Children 'T is well known after what manner the Duke of Chartres married Mademoiselle de Blois The Prince to preserve an Office and a Government in his Family and to secure the Fortunes of his Children was forc'd to marry them to Bastards whose Mother's Name would not be permitted to be mentioned in any publick Deed. The Prince of Conty is Master of all those excellent Endowments both natural and acquired with which a Person of his Quality ought to be adorn'd But what Treatment does so rare a Merit procure him at the Court He is left without Command Office or Government while the chief Employments are given to to those that are infinitely beneath him I know some Gentlemen who are oftentimes wont to complain that the Princes of the Blood are not more tenderly touch'd with a sence of their own Disgrace and our Miseries But neither is their Power considerable nor do we merit their Assistance The late Prince inspired with a just Indignation against the French Nobility used to say I put the Sword in their Hands I cry'd out against Tyranny and they answered me with Musquet-shot The Consideration of his Misfortunes has taught our Princes Caution And if any one among 'em should have the Generosity to declare himself the Protector of the Common Interest who could assure us that our Country-men would not still be Fools enough to fight against him The Dukes and Peers and Officers of the Crown are likewise by vertue of their Dignity chief Counsellors of State and have a Right to go to the Parliament when they please Ah! vain Shadow of the Glorious Priviledges of the ancient Peers of France No matter of Importance was transacted without their Consent They remain'd unconcern'd Spectators of the Wars that were begun without their Approbation leaving the King to pursue his own private Quarrels and serv'd him only in those Wars which they judg'd necessary for the common good of the Realm Such is the obedience which the present Princes of Germany pay to the Emperor and you know better than I that the Government of France did very much resemble that of Germany before our King 's had remitted to the Crown those great Fiefs that were dismembred from it during the Reign of Hugh Capet When the King acted contrary to the Priviledges of the Nobility or to the good of the People they did not fail to oppose him they appeal'd to the States-General and enter'd into Leagues among themselves and with the principal Cities to prevent the Execution of the unjust attempts of their Prince Philip Sirnam'd the Long had form'd a design to seize on the fifth part of the Estates of his Subjects under the pretext of reforming or New-coining the Money But the Princes and the Prelates says * Abridgement of Mezeray one of our Historians would not suffer the King's Commissaries to Execute his Orders they appeal'd to the States General and enter'd into Confederacies with the Cities which had so good an effect that the Imposition could not be Levied Do you think that these generous Patriots would have suffer'd a King to seize on the fifth part of all the Coin'd Money in the Kingdom twice in less than Four Years by commanding it Arbitrarily to be new Stamp'd And when did we renounce our Right of having recourse to those means which our Ancestors might lawfully make use of for the preservation of their Estates and Liberties No sooner had Lewis XI mounted the Throne but he began to * Abridgement of Mezeray Govern without a Council and for the most part also without Justice and Reason He fancyed himself an abler Politician than his Predecessors and left no means unessay'd to make himself terrible He chose rather to follow the Dictates of his own unruly Humour than to observe the Wise Laws of the Nation He thought he could not make a nobler use of his Authority than by oppressing his Subjects and that the best way to display his Grandeur was by ruining the greatest Families in the Kingdom and advancing the meanest of the People This is what some call says Mezeray to pass the Mon-age of Royalty and to rule without a Tutor but they ought rather to say without Sense or Reason Thus the King by endeavouring to assume an Arbitrary or Despotick Power irritated the Minds of the Princes of the Blood the Nobility and all true Lovers of their Country who resolv'd generously to shake off the Yoke that they were not accustom'd to bear Charles Duke of Orleans and first Prince of the Blood undertook to represent their grievances to His Majesty in the presence of a numerous Assembly of Persons of Quality who were met at the Court. Accordingly he spoke to the King with all the freedom that his Age Reputation and Quality Authorised him to use But these Remonstrances offended His Majesty and were received with Indignation and Scorn adds the same * Abridgement of Mezeray Historian The good Duke Died with Grief two Days after But not long after the King's Brother the Count of Charolois Son of the Duke of Burgundy the Dukes of Bretaign Calabria Bourbon and Alenzon with several other Princes of the Blood the Duke of Vemours the Counts of Armaguac Dunois S. Pol the Mareschal de Lohear the Lords of Albret Bueil and Chaumont-Amboise and almost all the Nobility and old Officers of the Army enter'd into an Association to oppose the pernicious Designs of the King And this Confederacy was call'd the League of the Publick-Good Lewis was then reduc'd to so great an extremity that if the City of Paris had joyn'd with the League they might have easily driven him out of the Kingdom Our flatterers are wont to call this Confederacy an unlawful Rebellion But Philip de Cominees did not think fit to give it so odious a name he was better acquainted with the Rights both of the Subjects and Sovereigns of Europe Far from that he only blames the United Princes for neglecting to secure the Interests of the People when they made their own Peace with the King * l. 1. c. 2 3. c. The Publick Good says he yielded to private Interest † Abridgement of Mezeray A modern Historian adds that it was agreed to nominate Thirty and Six Persons whom they called Notables consisting of an equal number of the Nobility Clergy and Lawyers who should be impowered to consult together and to fall upon proper Methods to ease the People of their Grievances and to redress the disorders of the State This instance gives us a clear view of the ancient

their Subjects the unexhaustible Power of France when manag'd by a skilful Hand the sure Funds that we possess in the Hearts of our Subjects and in their Zeal for the Service of their Sovereign and for the glory of the French Nation These seemingly Fine and studied expressions are very unsutable to the present posture of the King's Affairs They are meer huffing Rhodomontadoes which may cast a Mist before the Eyes of the dull and unthinking croud but they will appear ridiculous to the judicious and considering part of Mankind You will be of the same opinion if you will give your self the trouble to examine with me what all these magnificent expressions can be reasonably suppos'd to signifie What is that Glory of the State which has excited the envy of the Potentates of Europe Might it not be inferr'd from hence that we have enjoy'd so much happiness since the King began to Reign and have liv'd in so great an abundance of all things and in so ptofound a Peace that our Neighbours jealous of the happiness and riches of France had united themselves together against her and were come with a design to lay wast our Provinces set Fire to our Houses and Castles and raise our Cities meerly because they could not endure the vexations and mortifying sight of a People that enjoy'd more freedom and Plenty and liv'd more contentedly than all the other Nations of Europe If this was the case the King might indeed complain and justly too that the glory of his State that is the happiness of all his Subjects had rais'd the envy of the Potentates of Europe and that they had united themselves together to carry on an unjust War against him But besides that our Neighbours are not capable of such base and inhuman designs the King has been very careful not to give them the least occasion to envy the happinsss of those who live under his Dominion England Germany and Holland have seen the Trade of France ruin'd the People over-loaded with Impositions the Provinces drain'd of Men and Money and the King's Subjects force'd to leave their Native Country to seek their Bread in the remotest corners of the Universe But far from envying the happiness and glory of the French Nation our generous Neighbours have damented our misfortunes and to the utmost of their Power assisted those that came to implore their Help and Protection 'T is a great while since we forgot the proper signification of certain words the glory of the State that is according to our modern Phraseology the Pride and Haughtiness of the King to love the Publick good that is to furnish His Majesty with means to satisfie his Luxury and Ambition But can you imagine that the English Germans and Dutch would take such a terrible Alarm at these improvements and alterations of our Language They might indeed laugh at the folly of the French who fancy that the Power of a King that oppresses them is the glory of their State and Nation But I durst swear that they were never jealous of our pretended happiness so long as the King continued to place all his Glory and that of the Nation in making Versailles the most magnificent Palace in the World in burying several Millions in that proud Structure in squandering away his Treasures on Cascades and Water-works in throwing away the lives of a prodigious number of his best Soldiers to alter the course of the River Eure and in reducing the Noblemen that were in his Service to Beggery by a forc'd extravagancy in Cloths Horses and Equipage So long I say as the King's Ambition aspir'd not to higher objects than these 't is very probable that his Neighboring Potentates might condemn his Pride bewail the blindness of the Lords and Gentlemen of France who consum'd their Fortunes to so little purpose and pity those Wretches that were starv'd to maintain so extravagant a Luxury but I am confident that they had not the least intentions to combine together against France Thus far I dare undertake for those Princes but no farther For without doubt they were otherwise affected than I have represented them hitherto when they beheld the taking of Strasburg with several other Places of importance and the pretended Acquisition of Casal to the prejudice of the lawful Heirs of the House of Muntua when they saw Fort Lewis and the Citadel of Hunningen built to curb the Swiss Cantons and several Princes of Germany a project laid to enslave England and render it dependant on the Court of France Sovereigns treated with the utmost contempt the Empire Spain and the United Provinces chain'd at the feet of a Statue which was erected at Paris by an extravagant flatterer and above a Hundred and fifty thousand Men ready upon the first occasion either to attack Germany or seize on the rest of the Netherlands This Sir is that pretended glory of the State that has excited not the Envy but the indignation and just Revenge of the Potentates of Europe The States General of the United Provinces had for several Years been justly esteem'd the most Potent Republick in Europe They enjoy'd all the blessings of a profound Peace Arts flourish'd among them their Trade furnish'd them with great abundance of Money and of all the conveniencies of Life and the People were so highly satisfied with the easiness of the Government that the saying of * Rem difficillimam assecuti sunt ut illis ne voto quidem op●s sit Tacit. de moribus Germanorum Tacitus concerning the ancient Germans might have been apply'd to them Even their best Friends could not have made a wish to their advantage and they had nothing to desire of God but that he would suffer them long to enjoy so blest and peaceful a Life The glory of their State was Real and Solid glory Denmark ow'd its Liberty to them and they had stopt the Kings Progress in the Spanish Netherlands by Negotiating that Triple-League which mortified France so effectually All Europe own'd that they had Reason to secure their own Liberty by keeping so troublesom and Ambitious a Neighbour at a distance from their Frontiers and praised their generousity for protecting a Minor Prince against the unjust Attacks of so Potent an Enemy There needed no more to incense the King against them nor could his Wrath be appeas'd without declaring a War under pretext of the ill satisfaction which the States had given to the Court of France These are the very words which the King makes use of in a Letter which he wrote to them a little before All the World was surpriz'd at the strangeness of a Phrase which they had never heard before These two Words were perfect strangers to one another and People could not forbear laughing at the odd figure which they made at their first meeting But whence proceeded this ill satisfaction We are told that it was caus'd by I know not what Medal which bore the following Inscription Assertis Legibus