inevitable Confusions and Troubles which a Rupture would produce and expect that our Moderation might touch their hearts or that the Divine Providence would by some other means provide for our safety But this Patience of ours hath served them for a Ladder whereby they have mounted to open Infringings of the Peace which cannot admit of any Interpretation or Extenuation And I defie all the subtiltie of the Gallicane litigious Cavills to palliate them with the least pretext or meanest appearance of Justice 'T is here that I do intreat the Reader to shew me no favour but to devest himself of all kind of Complacencie which perhaps he may have for us to retain all his Partialitie if any he have for our Enemies and to judge of our Cause with the uttermost of Rigour The Abandoning of Portugal is one of the essential Foundations of the Peace without that it could never have been treated of nor concluded France doth declare it by these words in the LX Article of the said Treatie For as much as we have foreseen and apprehended that such an Engagement might be an Obstacle not to be surmounted in the conclusion of the Peace and consequently reduce the Two Kings to a necessity of perpetuating the War And a little beneath in the very same Article it goes on in these terms In fine in contemplation of the Peace and seeing the absolute necessity wherein his most Christian Majestie finds himself either to perpetuate the War by a Rupture of the present Treatie which he perceives to be inevitable in case he should have persisted to obtain in this Affair from his Catholick Majestie other Conditions then those which he had offered c. 'T is clear in the second place by the same Article that to oblige France to this Abandoning the King of Spain refused from the most Christian King the Restitution of all those places and Dominions upon which the Arms of France had seised during the War The terms are clear in the same Article Offering besides the places which are to be restored unto his Catholick Majestie by the present Treatie to render unto him also all the other Conquests in general which his said Arms have made in this War and intirely to restore the Prince of Conde providing and upon condition that the Affairs of the Kingdome of Portugal should remain in the state in which at present they are 'T is likewise out of controversie every way that this Abandoning of Portugal was covenanted and promised by France so authentically and in such clear and special terms that it cannot be called in question nor be made subject to any Interpretations contrary to the true sense and intention of the Parties contracting Here you have the terms His said Majestie shall meddle no more with the said Affair and doth promise and oblige himself upon his Honour and in the Faith and the Word of a King for himself and his Successors not to give unto the aforementioned Kingdom of Portugal neither in general nor to any person or persons of it in particular of what dignity estate or condition they way be neither for the present nor hereafter any Aid or Assistance publick or secret directly or indirectly of Men Arms Ammunition Victuals Ships or Moneys under any pretext nor of any other thing that is or can be by land nor by Sea nor in any other farshion as likewise not to permit that any Leavies shall be made in any of his most Christian Majestie 's Kingdoms and Estates nor grant free passage to those which may come out of other Countries to the help of the aforesaid Realm of Portugal 'T is no less evident that they have failed in every point and every circumstance of this Promise That from the very beginning they secretly conveyed Troups into Portugal in several bodies That at the self-same time when upon the complaints of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports that no Souldiers should be suffered to imbark for Portugal they did not abstain from making them pass under-hand and by connivence That a little while after the Marshall of Turenne publickly made Leavies for their assistance and that the Marquess de la Fuente having represented that this was a direct Contravention to the Treatie of Peace they pay'd him with this cold and disdainfull Answer that it was a particular act of the Marshall of Turenne's in which the Court of France had no hand That they continued to provide them with Corn and all other sorts of Ammunition for War And all this whilst the effect of the pretended Devolution was yet uncertain and could no waies operate even among private persons unless the Daughter did survive the Father and before ever the French made any Instance or Overture touching that Pretension We have in our hands the Letters intercepted which make faith that the Court of France hath ever since the Peace fomented the Obstinacie of the Portugueses that she hath hindred them from accepting the advantagious Conditions which were offered them animating them by a hope of mightie Succours not onely for their own Defence but also for carrying an Offensive War into the very heart of Spain We have many Letters of Monsieur de Lionne and the Archbishop of Ambrun to Monsieur de Shomberg which prove the continual Correspondence which was betwixt them for the direction of that War No body is ignorant how the Duke of Beaufort the last year came with his whole Fleet upon the Coasts of Portugal where he spent a part of the Summer to the great prejudice of his Allies onely to secure the passage of Victuals and Ammunition whereof the Portugueses were in extreme want and that at the same time when they were offering us their Mediation to work an Accommodation with Portugal All the World knows that Monsieur Colbert privately made several voiages thither to encourage them and contract a secret Alliance with them That the Sieur Courtin a little while after the close of the Pyrenean Treatie went expressly into England to move the King of Great Britain not to abandon the Portugueses We intercepted in a French Bottom which came from Portugal the accompt of the Expences and the Succours which France hath given without intermission to that Kingdome since the Conclusion of the Peace whereby it is clear amongst other things that the French have alwaies entertained Troups at their own charge to uphold this War And for the Master-piece of all these unjust proceedings France it self cannot deny but that it hath lately concluded a League offensive with that Kingdome against all its Enemies The principal Conditions of this League are That they shall be the Friends of their Friends and the Enemies of their Enemies excepting England That France shall furnish them with as many men as they need to carry on an offensive War in Spain both by Sea and land shall advance unto them by way of loan the half of their Pay for the
entertainment of Auxiliarie Troups and that they shall furnish them every year under the same title of Loan with the sum of three hundred thousand Crowns That all the Ports which they shall take in Spain either upon the one or the other Sea shall be put into the power of France That they shall not treat neither of Peace nor Truce without common consent That this League shall last for the space of ten years By the clauses above specified of the Pyrenean Treatie it may be seen that the Abandoning of Portugal was both an essential and fundamental point of the Peace That his Catholick Majestie preferred that Interest before all the Provinces Estates Dominions and strong Holds which he quitted to France and which he might have recovered if he would have yielded in the Affair of Portugal So that France doth not justly possess so many places as have been made over to her but in so farre as she hath satisfied the Condition in contemplation whereof they were given and without which all would have been restored to us Whereby it is proved that the publick and secret Aids which France hath given to that Kingdome and particularly the League offensive which she hath concluded with it are not simple Contraventions or Infringements but an open Rupture of the Treatie of Peace which restores his Catholick Majestie to the just right of pretending to and redemanding of whatever hath been accorded to France by virtue of this same Treatie and all the Expence Dammages which the continuation of this War and the impediments which France hath brought to an Accommodation have occasioned to the Crown of Spain This Conclusion is founded upon three invincible Reasons The first is drawn from the Third Article of the Instrument of Peace whereby it is agreed That to avoid the Differences which may afterwards happen between some Princes or Potentates Allies of the said Kings c. if they cannot reconcile them by their Interposition and that the said Allies shall therefore take Arms every one of the said Kings may help his own Allie with his forces without coming to any Rupture betwixt their Majesties by reason of such Assistance But in the end of the same Article Portugal is expressly excepted From whence may be deduced this evident Consequence That if the Treatie doth allow the two Kings to assist their Allies without breaking of the Peace Portugal excepted it must follow that France cannot assist Portugal without Rupture since that Kingdome is excepted by a clause restrictve of the general provision which is made for all the other Allies And in the close of the same Third Article all manner of Succours is generally prohibited to be given to the Subjects which might hereafter revolt against either of the said Kings to limit the permission contained in the said Article of assisting the Allies without Rupture onely to Lawfull Princes and Potentates with an absolute exclusion of all Rebells The second is That the Treatie is trulie broken when by an Attempt of one of the Parties it is reduced to such terms in which it could never have been concluded nor commenced Lege quod ab initio F. de Reg. Jur. It is certain by the LX. Article above cited and by the proper Declaration of France That this Engagement with Portugal was an insuperable Obstacle to the Conclusion of Peace It is then clearer then the day that since the Peace could never have been made without the Abandoning of Portugal it cannot subsist with those Succours nor with that League The third Reason is That by the League offensive with Portugal they do declare themselves Enemies to the Enemies the one of the other England onely excepted It follows then manifestly that the Crown of Spain not being excepted but on the contrarie this League being directly against it his most Christian Majestie hath declared himself an open Enemie to Spain by concluding it with this Condition Let us add to all this the Hostilitie already begun against those of Armentiers the Detention of the Governour of that place the Massacre o◠the Souldiers of the Garrison the Conspiracy against the Town of Luxemburg the Contributions which they have demanded from those very Provinces that are not comprised in this Pretension to save them from fire and pillage the Invasion of Charleroy which they fortifie the sacking and burning of divers Villages even in the Countrie of Liege the prophanation of the Churches and Holy places and the taking of Berges S. Winox And if all this cannot be called War Rupture and an Infringement of the Treatie of Peace I see not what names henceforth can be given to things to express their nature After all this the Latin Translator of this Libell sports himself wittilie with these majestical Hyperboles Rex Invictissimus Galliarum non proferendi Imperii cupiditate aut gloriâ Bellicae laudis sed communi utilitate Officii Religione compulsus c. And farther Neque enim is est qui de inferenda finitimis cogitet injuria aut in rem suam aliena convertere aut aliorum demum invadere velit Imperia unam praeter caeter as Virtutes colit Justitiam huic Coronam Sceptrúmque submittit c. He believes that to persuade his saying is sufficient that his single words shall be able to give the lye to all the contrary effects and that Christendome will give more credit to their Ears then to their Eyes and to their Experience ARTICLE III. That this Rupture is unjust admitting that the Rights of the most Christian King were well founded THE Injustice of the Rupture and the infringing of the Peace by the Succours which France hath sent into the Kingdom of Portugal and by the League newly concluded with them is so manifest of it self and so clearly proved that it were to have an ill opinion of the sufficiency and the Judgment of the Readers and to abuse their leisure to employ time or Reasons to render it more evident But to give our Enemies yet a larger Carreer and fight with them with less advantage I am content for once to tie my hands and shut my eyes to all our Rights and grant them by a false supposition which I reserve to be destroyed in the following Articles that their Pretensions are Just and grounded on solid Foundations I will also for this time afford them the libertie of deciding this Question either by publick Right or Municipal Customes Though in the sequel I will make them see that 't is solely the Treatie of Peace which ought to be the Judge of this Process And after I have granted them of my own accord and without prejudice all those advantages which may seem to give them the gain of the Cause my onely aim in this Article is to demonstrate That this Invasion and Rupture is unjust contrarie to the Laws of Nations and void of all those forms which are necessarily required to make a War lawfull That the Oath which France doth exact from the
absolutely out of all Commerce Fourthly That this Renunciation is the Soul and the inseparable Condition of this Treatie of Marriage without which it had never been either designed or concluded nor consequently the Treatie of Peace as is expressed in the Article before cited Fifthly That it proceeds not from the bare motion of the deceased King or a particular inclination of his towards the Children of the Second Bed but out of an inevitable Necessity flowing from the Salique Law and the unjust Extention which France doth make of it to all the States which Fortune hath put into her power this Necessitie and the other of the Publick good with the conservation of this August Familie reduced the Infanta to the condition of never being able to be Queen of France but by this Renunciation Sixthly This is evident by the Act of Renunciation fol. 17. That there 's no constraint nor violence on her Father's part whose Sweetness and natural Moderation have so eminently shined throughout the whole course of his life not onely towards his faithful Subjects but likewise towards his Enemies and Rebells that many conceived it did reach unto excess It is not to be presumed that the same heart which had in it an inexhaustible treasure of Bountie toward all the rest of the World should have nothing but Rigour and Hardness for a Daughter who was the Centre of his choicest delights If there had been any Constraint the effects would have been seen by some Complaint or Action of the Infanta's and if her respect to her Father did hold them up her Discontent would have appeared in her eyes and in her face the troubles of the Soul what care soever is taken to hide them do imprint a character outwardly which betrays the secret of the Heart Never was any seen to go to a Wedding with more visible signs of satisfaction She signed this Act with so pleasant a Resolution that it was easie to observe she much more esteemed what she was to acquire then what she lost thereby and the Tears which she shed at this day for this War of which against her mind they do make her the innocent Pretext witness sufficiently that she disapproves of the Cause of it as much as she detests the Effects and are authentick ratifications of the free Consent which she gave to this Renunciation If she had done it unwillingly she would not have failed to have made Protestations against it as soon as ever she found her self in a condition to declare without fear and with the applause of all France the true thoughts of her minde She her self will confess without doubt that it was neither Respect nor Obedience no nor Complacencie but the free choice of her own Inclination and Prudence That the King her Father neither employed his Paternal power nor Royal Authority nor Command nor Threats nay not so much as Persuasions to induce her thereunto but that he satisfied himself by proposing nakedly the state of Business to her that he might leave to her self the entire decision That of the two parts she made choice of the most advantagious and the most fitting That she never repented of this Choice and would to day doe the same thing again without any kind of hesitation if she were in the same condition in which she was then From whence it may be concluded that this Act having been made without any kind of Fear or Violence it cannot be called in question by reason of any exception of the Civil Laws Qui metum non intendit Promissio validè fiet nec scrutabimur quid aut quatenus ejus intersit quae Juris Romani sunt subtilitates Grot. lib. 3. cap. 19. de Jure Belli Seventhly That there is no Laesion seeing that she acquires a greater Benefit then that which she hath renounced not being able to possess them both together by an irremediable repugnancie It was then a kind of Permutation rather then a Cession because she gave to obtain and quitted to get The Laws give no rise to an entire Restitution where the condition of the Minor is rendred more advantagious by the Contract and do permit in this case Alienations even of the Goods of Pupills It is almost impracticable in the Contracts of Kings to prove the Laesion and determine the legal Portion with its just weight which cannot be verified but by the valuation of the Goods the inevitable Expences must be deducted and the necessary Charges their affairs are involved into so many Intrigues charged with so many Obligations and Costs that to consider it in its rigour there remains very little unto them whereof they can freely dispose and by the ordinary Rules it is impossible to set a price upon their Estates It is for this reason that they are accustomed by a practice received among Monarchs to give unto the Daughters a certain summe of Money which serves instead of a legal Portion without ever coming to any other rating of Goods which cannot be justly valued The most Christian Kings do practice this towards the Daughters of France He of England used the same way towards the Dutchess of Orleans our King towards his The Princes of Italie and Germanie have the same Custome without ever speaking of Supplements legal Portions or Laesions which are properly the Actions of private persons unworthy the Greatness of Monarchs who never act for Profit but for Reason of State Moreover we must consider as I have said this Marriage not as a private Contract but as a Member of the Treatie of Peace which necessarily relates to all the other Conditions By the said Treatie and consequently in consideration of the said Marriage are granted unto the most Christian King a great quantity of Provinces and States which do so notably increase his Dominions much exceeding the value of whatever the Queen of France can pretend for her legal Portion and this Concession doth redound to the advantage and to the Greatness of the Queen of France by that inseparable conjunction which unites all her Husband's Interests with hers Whence it follows that this Cession ought to suffice her in the place of her legal Portion since the Marriage was made in favour of the Peace and the Peace in consideration of the Marriage and that they are two indivisible things which could not have being the one without the other and so strongly chained together that the Conditions of the Marriage are included in the essence of the thing if the Cause the End the Effects and the whole Context of the Negotiation be considered 'T is in vain that they alledge that they have acquired them by the right of Arms and that they were in a condition to drive us to Extremities and would have us esteem it a grace to have spoiled us but of a half 't is too much to presume on their good fortune and to dispose too absolutely of the success of Arms of which God alone hath reserved the events to his Providence