Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A48302
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Lex talionis, or, An enquiry into the most proper ways to prevent the persecution of the Protestants in France
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Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing L1863; ESTC R33482
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14,039
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32
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to them by his Ancestors in the most sacred manner possible and he is guilty also of the greatest Unkindness to those very People who were the Instruments and Agents of the Glory of his Family and of his Person To make good which Reflection that I may not seem to be guilty of Disrespect to the Majesty of the King of France 't is needful to examine a little the Ground on which the Protestant Interest in France stood for the last Century of Years and the History of the present Royal Family of France and how they came to the Crown In the Year 1571. on the 24th Day of August Charles IX being King of France the Third War with the Hugonots having been lately ended and a Peace made with the Protestants the Cities of Rochell Montauban Coignac and la Charitie being put into their Hands for Security and the Chief of the Protestants wholly resting on the Faith and Honour of the King in full Satisfaction of his sincere Intentions being come to Court was acted the Massacre of Paris at which in the space of Five Days above Thirty Thousand Protestants were barbarously Surprized and Butcher'd in Cold Blood Upon which follow'd the Fourth and Fifth Civil War during which King Charles IX died and the Crown fell to Henry III. the last of the House of Valois and then newly Elected King of Poland The Beginning of his Reign being entangled with Civil Broils the Protestant Interest grew very strong and though the League forced the King to make Three several Wars with them yet they still maintain'd their Liberty and Religion At length the Faction of the Guises known by the Name of the Catholick League Declar'd themselves so absolutely against the King and grew so powerful especially after the Death of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise whom the King had caused to be kill'd that they had almost driven him out of the Kingdom In this Exigence the Protestants against whom he had carry'd on Four Persecutions and Wars and therein destroyed many thousands of their Brethren undertook his Defence and joining all their Forces in order to Restore him marched with him to the very Gates of Paris where while he was preparing for a general Attack of the City he was barbarously Assassinated by Jacques Clement a Jacobin Monk sent out of the City on purpose being stabb'd in the Belly with a Poynard of which he died the Day after Henry IV. the present King's Grand-father was then King of Navarre and a Protestant and being Lawful Heir to the Crown as also recommended to the Nobility by the deceased King at his death took upon him the Stile and Title of King of France The League back'd by the Power of the King of Spain oppos'd him with all the vigour imaginable and many of the Catholick Nobility deserted him on the account of his being an Heretick The Protestants serv'd him with all the Glory and Loyalty that ever was shown perhaps in any War in the World and as is computed during the Years War he maintain'd against the League and the Spanish Power above an Hundred and Sixty Thousand Protestant Soldiers lost their Lives in his Service At length to put an end to the War and assure himself of the Kingdom he deserted his Religion and turn'd Roman-Catholick by which means he obtain'd a full Possession of the Crown ruin'd the League the Chief Heads of it making their Peace with him one by one and at last concluded the War with the Spaniard at the Peace of Vervin The Protestants however never withdrew their Loyalty nor their Services from him The famous Mareschal de Biron the Dukes de Bouillon du Plessis and de la Tremouille continuing to do him the most faithful and important Services against the Spaniards to the last Having setled himself in the Kingdom and made Peace with all the World the Protestants who had serv'd him so faithfully and who expected no other Reward than the Security of their Religion and Estates obtain'd from him the famous Edict of Nantes in which is particularly stated and stipulated the Terms of their Liberty in what Places they should erect their Temples how they should hold their Synods and Assemblies Money was allotted out of the Publick Revenues to maintain their Ministers Cities were allotted to them for their Security the Garrisons whereof were to be paid by the King And the Edict was made Perpetual and Irrevocable by being Entred and Registred in the Parliaments and Courts of Justice all over the Kingdom But all the Services of the Protestants to this Great King by which he was brought to the Crown of France nor the solemn Engagement of this Edict could not preserve them but that in the Ministry of Cardinal Richlieu under the very next Reign they were again attack'd and driven to the necessity of taking Arms in their own Defence Which Cardinal after three times making Peace and breaking it again at his pleasure compleated the Conquest of them in the Taking of Rochelle the Protestants being miserably deserted by the English and Thirteen Thousand People starv'd to death in the Town Since this in the Infancy of the present King while the Contests between the Prince of Conde and the Queen-Mother were so hot as to break out into a War the Protestants as Subjects only were not a little instrumental to the maintaining him in that very Power which now he makes use of to their Destruction I think this History fully makes good the Assertion that the present Usage of the Protestants is both Perfidious and Ungrateful Perfidious as being acted while under the Protection of a Sacred League and Solemn Treaty and Ungrateful as it is exercised on those very People who with their Lives and Estates raised the present Fortune of the House of Bourbon to the Greatness it now enjoys I have been the more particular in this Account because from hence it will appear that the Protestants of France stand on a different foot from other Subjects of that Monarchy and that his right of Dealing with them differs from his Power over the rest of his Subjects for they are his Subjects by express Stipulations and Agreements whose Obedience to him has been always allow'd to be Conditional they have made Peace and War with their Kings not as Rebels but as Persons having a Lawful Right to Plead and to Defend their Kings have given them Cautionary Towns for the Performance of the Treaties made with them a Thing which in its own Nature implies that they might hold those Towns against him if he did not perform the Postulata of those Treaties without the Scandal of Rebellion So that their Right to the Liberty of their Religion had an Authority sufficient to justifie them in taking Arms nor does any of the French Histories that ever I saw though wrote with the greatest Partiality ever call it a Rebellion but a War with the Hugonots and the Conclusions were always call'd A Peace with the Hugonots as