should have had any Part in this Delay and that you should have told him you had no Orders from me to pay him that Money However to take away all scruple if any can still remain after our last Conference at Brussels upon this Subject I do by these Presents order and appoint you pursuant to those Powers that have been given me from the King to pay or cause to be payd to Monsieur Rhintorf or his Order alâ— such Sums of Money as you shall any ways be able to raise either by the Sale of such Tin as is already arrived or shall arrive at Ostend upon his Majesty's Account with all the Diligence and Dispatch that is possible Or in case you do not find any ready Sale for it that you will at least pay him all such Sums as you shall be able to raise by pawning or engaging it to the best advantage you can after this I need say no more than to Conjure you by all the Zeal you have for his Majesty's Service and all the Friendship you have for me to employ upon this Occasion your utmost Diligence and Credit for the Conjuncture is grown so extremely pressing at this time that I can never say enough to recommend this Service to your best Endeavours I am SIR Your Servant To my Lord Arlington Brussels Oct. 13. S. N. 1665. My Lord UPON Saturday last about Nine at Night the Bishop's Agent there brought me a Desire from the * Of Castel Rhodrige Governâ—â— of the Spanish Netherlands Marques to come privately to him We stay'd long together and talked much The Substance was that he had last Post writ to the Spanish Ambassadour to inform the King that he heard the French were ready to march in Assistance of the Hollander against the Bishop of Munster and had told the Spanish Ambassadour in France they should take all Delays here in leave of Passage for Denial That he the Marquess was resolved upon Confidence of his Majesty's late Letter and Assistance to oppose them till he received Orders from Spain and hopes his Majesty will not fail of protecting and defending him in this Resolution He speaks with much Earnestness and Passion for concluding the League between England and Spain and either a Peace or Truce between Spain and Portugal in which he very much presses His Majesty's Interposition at this Time because nothing else will take away the Dishonour on the Spanish side but the Respect given to so Great and Powerful a King's Mediation He assures me he has given an absolute Denial to the Hollanders Demand of buying a great Quantity of Corn in these Countries which now begins to be one among their other great Wants That the French upon Jealousie of the Swede sent very lately an Envoy into Holland to join with them in pressing the Dane to put himself into a Posture of making a Diversion That for Security of these Countries six thousand Spaniards and Italians were in few Days expected here these by Land those by Sea And that for raising German Troops he had last Week sent five hundred thousand Gilders into Germany from whence if they needed he could have twenty four thousand Men so as he doubted not to defend these Countries if France Assaults him The Biass of all this Discourse was to shew they had no great need of our Assistance at the same time they press so much to be assured of it and to represent the mutual Necessity of a Conjunction between England and Spain with all the Expressions of Affection to His Majesty's Person and Service that a Courtier or almost a Lover could use Upon this last Subject I could not let him pass with the Discourse of the late King's Ruine and His Majesty's Danger at home for want of Friendship abroad nor could I leave that Point because he had so often harped upon it till I forced him to confess at least by Silence that his Majesty was as safe at Home at this time as either French or Spanish King For the rest finding him now much warmer than he used to seem in the Desires of the Bishop of Munster's Success or at least Preservation and finding from Alderman Backwell that he had yet been able to raise no more Money upon all our Tin at Antwerp for the second Payment those paltry Merchants combining to Ruine him in the Price of it upon the Belief of his Necessity to sell I would not omit that Occasion of desiring the Marquess to find some Person out that should take it all off our Hands with ready Money which they might raise at their own leisure and I believed with much Gains in which I assured him he would give His Majesty a great Testimony of his Affection to his Service which was so much concerned in the Bishop of Munster's Fortunes He told me he would consult about it next Morning and upon Sunday Night sent one with a Dispatch of mine to Alderman Backwell to know the whole Quantity and lowest Price So that I am now in great hopes of seeing some good Issue of that Business which I almost begun to despair of An Express from the Bishop of Munster came to me on Saturday last protesting he could no longer subsist unless the Money came anâ— Your Lordship may easily imagine how much Pain I am in upon that Occasion especially hearing my Self so often reproached for having drawn him to so desperate an Adventure so much against his own Resolutions which were not to take the Field till the second Payment were received and the third assured on this side It would look like Vanity in me to tell Your Lordship more of what I hear too much of this kind but I will say that unless you take some speedy and effectual Resolution in this Particular I shall look like the veriest Rogue in the World and such as it will not be much for his Majesty's Honour to employ But after all I will tell Your Lordship freely that I think all my Trains had not taken Fire without a perfect Accident which I had the good Fortune to improve so upon the sudden as to make it the absolute Occasion of the Bishop's taking the Field when he did which I shall some time or other I hope entertain you with and will serve for a Moral to shew how small Shadows and Accidents sometimes give a Rise to great Actions among Mankind for either such or the beginning of such this bold March is like to prove All I know of its Success you will find in these Letters one from my Lord Carlingford to whom I cannot send Your Lordship's last till I have farther Directions from him for my Address the other being Part of one from a Person in the Holland Camp belonging to the Rhingrave Twenty Rumours more we have of his Successes but I will not yet credit them this much I will that nothing can probably endanger him besides want of Money and that I know him to be a Man too firm to be
de l'intention de leurs Hautes Puissances Et demeureray á jamais celuy qui suis avec passion Monsieur Votre tres affectionné et tres humble Serviteur Johan de Wit From Monsieur de Wit Hague March 16. 1668. SIR YOur Dispatch of the 11th Instant did not come to my hands till the 14th at Noon the Courier who brought it having not been dismiss'd from Brussels till the 13th I was very glad to see you had at last dispos'd the Marquis to dispatch the Baron of Bergeyck for Aix la Chapelle being very much perswaded that it imports us mightily to have a quick Conclusion of the Peace or else to see clearly into the most inward Dispositions of the King of France as well as those of the Spanish Court and that all Delay is very prejudicial to our Intentions and to the Interests of Spain And that we may be neither surpriz'd nor abus'd on either side I think in the present Conjuncture two things are absolutely necessary The first is that England and this State be well furnished by Sea and Land and the other that we take away not only all lawful Cause but also as much as possible all Pretext from France to delay or avoid the concluding and signing the Treaty of Peace To satisfie on our side for the first Point we are resolv'd as soon as the Season will permit to send into the Field all our Cavalry which consists of 7300 Horse and provisionally 25 Regiments of our Foot for which the chief Rendezvous shall be at Bergopzoom or thereabouts from whence there will be a convenient March in a few days into most part of the King of Spain's Places in the Netherlands We have also given Order for equipping 48 Ships of War above the Number commonly used for Guard and Convoy And the States have already given order to their Ambassadors in England to concert with the King of Great Britain and his Ministers upon the Number of Ships and Men that each Party shall be oblig'd to have ready and in what time Besides the Deputies of the State have this Day finally agreed with the Ministers of the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunebourg to bring into the Service of this State three Regiments of Horse and 3000 Foot and I hope the Treaty will be signed to morrow or the next Day And further they are going here to augment the Old Militia by new Levies to the Number of 12000 Men with the Troops of the said Dukes which are to enter into the Service of the State And I will not fail of helping what I can to the accomplishing of all this as soon as it can be done by the Constitution of the Government And if you approve all these Preparations and Diligences as I hope you will since they seem very necessary and no way offensive since he who really desires the Peace will find in it his Support and Advantage and that these Forces shall not be employ'd till the last Necessity against him that by his Wilfulness would disappoint Christendom of the Benefit of it I desire you by your Letters to make the Exhortations necessary to the King of England and his Ministers that they may not fail on that side to make the like Preparations and Diligences As to the 2d Point I think it imports much that the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo should explain himself upon which of the two Conditions proposed by the Alternative he pretends to have accepted wherein there seems the less Difficulty since his Excellence will without doubt explain himself for the abandoning the Places the King of France has conquer'd the last Campagn with their Dependances But then I think it will be our Interest and Duty to endeavour that some reasonable Exchange be made for Places far in the Heart of Flanders against Places lately taken in the Franche Compté or others that shall be more for the Advantage of France and less for the Inconvenience of Spain and Us. Besides to take all Pretext from France which they may pretend to make upon a Defect of Powers in the said Marquis either in the principal Matter or by default of a Clause of Substitution or otherwise I think it will be very necessary that the K. of Great Britain and the States General shall be obliged to ratifie and accomplish whatever shall be treated and concluded at Aix and shall promise in the firmest manner the K. of France can desire to oblige Spain in case of necessity to the said Ratification and Accomplishment by all their Forces both by Sea and Land And in short that in every Occurrence they will do very judiciously to obviate all Exceptions and Delays which can be brought to the Prejudice of the Peace But further when we shall have brought the King of France to an absolute Necessity of either finally concluding or discovering his Intention contrary to the Peace in that Case upon the first Step France shall make to frustrate Christendom of such a general Good the King of Great Britain and the States shall without further Delay bring all their Forces by Sea and Land not only for Defence of the Spaniards but also for the Intent specified in the third of our separate Articles and more amply deduc'd in my Dispatch of the 25th of February last For the rest if you have receiv'd the King of Great Britain's Ratification upon our last Marine Treaty I shall wait till you think proper to exchange it upon which I shall endeavour to câ—â—form the States to your Desire whether our Ratification shall be sent to our Commissioners now with you or whether you will please to send your Secretary or your Brother hereto the Hague or whether you know any way will please you better For in this and every other Occurrence I shall endeavour to follow your Desires and second your Intentions as being not by form of Compliment but very really Sir Your c. De Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 16me Mars 1668. Monsieur VOtre depêche du 11me de ce mois ne m'a esté rendue que le 14me apres midy le courier qui la apportée n'ayant esté expedié et parti de Brusselles que le 13me J'ay esté fort aise de voir que vous aviez enfin disposé Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo á depêcher le Baron de Bergayck promptement vers Aiz la Chapelle estant tres persuadé qu'â— nous importe d'avoir une prompte conclusion de la paix ou de voir clair dans les intentions les plus interieures du Roy de France aussi bien que dans celle de la cour d'Espagne et que tout delai est fort prejudiciable á nos intentions et aux interêts de l'Espagne Et á fin que nous ne puissions pas estre surpris ou abusés de coté ou d'autre je juge qu'en la conjuncture presente deux choses nous sont absolument necessaires dont la
Januarii 1668. Signed as before Separate Articles which shall be of the same Force and Authority as if they had been inserted in the Treaty concluded this Day between the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands I. Iâ— in the procuring of a Peace between Fâ—ance and Spain any Difficulty should arise about the Point of the Renunciation 't is to be so contriv'd That either no mention at all is to be made of it in the Treaty or at least the Form is to be conceiv'd and set down in such Words as nothing may accrue to either of the two Crowns on account of the said Renunciation nor any Prejudice be created to either of them in Point of Right But if either the King of Spain or the most Christian King refuse their Consent to this Expedient then the King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall proceed against the Refuser as is agreed by the third and fourth Article of the Treaty and in the last of these Articles respectively with this Condition however That in case such refusal proceed from the King of Spain the most Christian King shall oblige himself not to make War in the Low-Countries according to the Tenor of the fourth Article II. That the King of Great Britain and the States General of the United Netherlands to the end that all Parties may be satisfied shall oblige themselves to use their utmost Endeavours that a Peace may at the same time be establish'd between the Kings of Spain and Portugal but with this Condition That the most Christian King shall also oblige himself in case this Negotiation cannot be so soon accomplish'd that such a Delay shall no way hinder on his Part the Peace between him and Spain except only That it shall he free for the said most Christian King to give Succour and Aid to the King of Portugal his Ally either by way of Attack that he may draw the Enemy fron other Parts or by an other means which he shall judge to be most convenient and advantagious And if the Spaniards can be brought to consent to a Peace under the said Condition and the same be concluded accordingly then the most Christian King shall be oblig'd wholly to abstain from the Low-Countries as possess'd of Peace and not involv'd in the Disputes of either Party Neither shall it be lawful for him to form any Designs against them either by open force or clandestine Practices nor to require any Satisfaction under the Pretext of Charges and Expences to be sustained on account of the War in Portugal either for raising Men or any other Burdens of that War And if it should happen that during the said War the auxiliary Forces of the most Christian King should possess themselves of any Places in Spain or Italy the said most Christian King shall restore them to Spain as soon as the Peace with Portugal shall be made But if beyond and contrary to Expectation Spain should refuse to make Peace with the King of Portugal and also with the most Christian King under that Exception of leaving him free to assist his Confederate as has been already said In this unexpected case The King of Great Britain and the confederated States shall be bound to employ themselves effectually to procure the Consent of the Spaniards yet with this Provision That the most Christian King do also oblige himself not to make War in the Low-Countries as in the former Case is already said III. But if beyond all expectation the most Christian King should entertain such Thoughts as shall induce him to refuse to promise That he will sign the Treaty of Peace as soon as the Spaniards shall consent to give up all those Places which have been acquir'd by him in his last Expedition or such an Equivalent as shall be agreed by mutual Consent or in case he shall not accomplish his Promise or shall disallow or reject the Cautions and Provisions that are express'd in the said Treaty which are so necessary to obviate the Fears and Jealousies that are most justly conceiv'd of the most Christian King's Intentions to make a farther progress with his victorious Arms into the said Low-Countries so often already mention'd In all these Cases and also if he should endeavour by any Subterfuges or oblique Practices to hinder or elude the Conclusion of the Peace Then England and the United Netherlands shall be bound and oblig'd to join themselves to the King of Spain and with all their united Force and Power to make War against France not only to compel him to make Peace upon the Conditions aforesaid but if God should bless the Arms taken up to this end and favour them with success and if it shall be thought expedient to the Parties concern'd to continue the War 'till things shall be restored to that Condition in which they were at the time when the Peace was made upon the Borders of both Kingdoms in the Pyrenaean Mountains IV. These separate Articles with all and every thing therein contain'd shall be confirm'd and ratified by the said King of Great Britain and the said States General of the United Provinces by Letters Patents of both Parties sealed with their Great Seal in due and authentick Form within four Weeks next ensuing or sooner if it may be and within the said time the mutual Instruments of Ratification shall be exchang'd on both sides Done at the Hague in Holland the 23d of January 1668. Signed as before Articuli separati qui ejusdem erunt Virtutis atque Authoritatis ac si inserti forent Tractatui hodierno Die intra Regem Magnae Britanniae Ordines Generales foederati Belgii concluso I. SI in procuranda pace inter Galliam Hispaniam se offerat aliqua difficultas super puncto renunciationis ea ineunda est ratio ut vel nulla ejus in pactis fiat mentio vel ut ejusmodi Verbis concipiatur Formula ut neutrae duarum Coronarum quoad praedictam renunciationem eo quicquam accedat aut etiam inde creetur aliquod juris detrimentum Quod si verò Rex Hispaniarum vet etiam Rex Christianissimus in id consentire nolint adversus recusantem Rex Magnae Britanniae foederati Ordines procedent conventum est Articulo tertio quarto dicti Tracitatus ultimo horum Articulorum respectivè Ea tamen Conditione ut in casu Recusationis Regis Hispaniae Rex Christianissimus se reciprocè obstringat quemadmodùm in Articulo quarto se nullatenus arma moturum in Belgica II. Quod Rex Magnae Britanniae Ordines Generales foederati Belgii ut prolixiùs ab omni parte satisfiat se obligabunt omnem sedulò operam daturos ut Pax inter Reges Hispaniae Lusitaniae eodem tempore sanciri possit ea tamen lege ut vicissim Gallia se obstringat si tam citò non possit id negotium perduci ad exitum uti Pax inter se Hispaniam
nihilominus ineatur hoc excepto ut liberum sit Regi Christianissimo suppetias ferre Regi Lusitaniae Foederato suo eique auxilio esse sive inferendo arma sua ut aliunde detrabat hostem sive alio quocunque modo quem sibi commodissimum atque maximè ex usu fore existimabit Et si Hispani adduci poterunt ut consentiant in Pacem sub dicta conditione atque ea proinde concluclatur Rex Christianissimus tenebitur à Belgica ut pacata atque neutrarum partium rebus implicata omnâ—ò â—bstâ—nere neque ei jus fa qâ—e erit quidquam adversus eam moliri neque palam virtute bellica neque clandestinis artibus ut ne petere ullam satisfactionem sub obtentu impensarum erog tronumque quae in bello Lusitanico erunt facienâ—ae tam ob delectum Mâ—â—tum quam alia Belli Onera Quòd si contingat mâ—nente dicto Bello per Auxiliares Regis Christianissimi Copias occupari loca quaedam in Hispania Italiave Rex Christianissimus simulatque Pax cum Lusitania facta fuerit eadem restituet Hispaniae Sed si praeter contra Expectationem Hispania recuset Pacem cum Rege Lusitaniae ut cum Rege Christianissimo ea cum exce tione ut Foederato suo liberum sit ei auxiliari quemadmodùm jam dictum est hoc inopinato casu Rex Magnae Britanniae foederati Ordines tenebuntur reapse id efficere ut Hispani omnimodò in id consentiant ita tamen ut reciprocè Rex Christianissimus se obstringat quemadmo◠ùm Casu primo quod non sit moturus Arma in Belgica III. Si praeter omnem expectionem Rex Christianissimus inducat in animum ut promittere nolit quod Tractatum Pacis signaturus sit simulatque Hispani cessuri fint omnia loca ab eo occupata in novissima expeditione vel aliud tantundem valens de quo mutuo consensu convenietur aut promissorum fidem non impleat aut detrectet respuatve cautiones praemunimenta in dicto Tractatu expressa quae necessaria sunt ut obviam eatur metui justissimè concepto ne Rex Christianissimuâ— arma sua victricia in saepiùs memorata Belgica ulteriùs proferat Quod omnibus istis casibus ut si per alia Subterfugia aut obliquas Artes conetur Pacis conclusionem impedire aut eludere Anglia foederatumque Belgium tenebuntur accedere partibus Regis Hispaniae omnibusque junctis viribus Terra Marique adversus Galliam bellum gerere ut compellatur non in leges duntaxat saepiùs jam memoratas Pacem facere sed si arma in eum finem sumpta Deum habeant faventem propitium atque de communi consensu id expedire visum fuerit etiam bellum continuare donec res in eum statum fuerint restitutae quo fuerunt tempore foederis in collimitio Regnorum in Montibus Pyrenaeis sanciti IV. Articuli hi separati omniaque singula iis contenta à â—icto Domino Rege Magnae Britanniae dictisque Dominis Ordinibus Generalibus foederatarum Provinciarum per patentes utriusque partis litteras sigillo magno munitas debita authenticu Forma intra quatuor Septimanas proximè sequentes aut citiùs si fieri poterit confirmabuntur ratihahebuntur mutuaque Ratihabitionum Instrumenta intra praedictum tempus hinc inde extradentur Actum Hagae-Comitum in Hollandia Die 23 Januarii 1668. Signed as before The Sweedish Act. WHereas the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands have earnestly desired that the King of Sweeden might be associated with them as one Principal party in that League which is this Day concluded and signed by their Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries whereby a speedy and safe Peace may be promoted and made between the two neighbouring Kings and the publick Tranquillity of Christendom by the Blessing of God may be restored And whereas the King of Sweeden himself even from the beginning of these Differences which have grown to such a height between the two Kings has acquainted the King of Great Britain and the States of the united Netherlands with his good and sincere Intentions and Desire to associate and join himself to them in the Business above-mention'd as well in regard of the strict Friendship and Alliances which he ackowledges have joined him in one common Interest with them as that by his Accession to them all useful and honourable Means and Industry may be used to establish a Peace between the two Kings Professing that no other Difficulty has hitherto restrained him from opening his Mind upon that whole matter than That he waited to be informed what firm and deliberate Counsels the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Netherlâ—â—ds would take in this Affair and what Assistance would by requisite with other things of that kind in which the said King of Sweeden desires to be satisfied to the end that he may proceed by the like Steps and in equal manner with the King of Great Britain and the States of the United Netherlands For these Reasons 't is thought expedient for the common good That the present Instrument between the Ministers Deputies and Plenipotentiaries of the said Kings of Sweeden and Great Britain and those of the said States of the United Netherlands be put down in Writing whereby on the one hand the King of Sweeden should be oblig'd after the fore-said Satisfaction receiv'd to embrace the said League to use the same Endeavours and to proceed equally and in the like manner as the said King of Great Britain and the said States of the United Netherlands think fit to do in order to promote and carry on so useful a Work and on the other hand the said King of Sweeden will be assured That a Place is reserved for him empty and intire to enter as one Principal Party into this League as by these Presents he is desir'd in the most friendly manner both by the King of Great Britain and by the States of the United Netherlands who on their Part will most readily employ themselves and all kind of good Offices towards the Emperor and King of Spain to the end that all such Differences as the said King of Sweeden may have with them be compos'd and determin'd according to the Rules of Equity and Justice And forasmuch as concerns the Aid which is required from the said King the States General of the United Netherlands will not be wanting to send with Expedition such necessary Instructions to their Ambassadors in the Court of England that between them and such Commissioners as the said King of Great Britain shall appoint to that purpose and the Extraordinary Ambassador of the King of Sweeden who is now ready to begin his Journey thither together with other Ministers residing there on the Part of divers Princes and States who are concern'd and interested in this Affair such Measures may be taken to settle all things which shall be
own Truth as well as my Business And so upon the 4th at Night all ended My Dissatisfaction with the Baron Bargeyck's Conduct since I came hither was I confess very great and my Expressions upon it very free in my several Expresses to the Marquis who it seems takes part in it and owns it so far as to seem most extremely ill satisfied with the Ministers using so much Earnestness here in beating him out of all those Designs I have had three several Letters from his Excellency since my being here upon that Subject but all so ill-humoured and so Emportèes that I think they had been better spared and though what was particular to Me civil enough yet some Expressions concerning the general Proceeding wherein I had the chiefest Part so Picquantes that I think I have reason to resent and am sure have not deserved it from any publick Minister either there or here And having answered them accordingly I know not upon what Terms we are like to be upon my Return And therefore could not forbear giving your Lordship the trouble of this Relation to justifie my self not only to your Lordship for there I am sure it will not need but if you think fit to the Count Molina and the Baron d' Isola too who may perhaps have received Letters from the Marquis upon our Proceedings here of the same Style that I have done I have been the more earnest in bringing this Matter to an Issue here which the Holland Ambassador says had never been done without Me because I conceived by all I have had from your Lordship as well as from other Hands not only that you desired it in England but that the Peace was necessary for the Constitution of His Majesty's present Affairs And since he has had the Glory of makng two Peaces so important we have now nothing to wish but to see him in a Condition to make War as well as Peace whenever the Honour and Interest of his Crowns shall make it necessary For that Necessity can I suppose be no ways long avoided but by our being in a Posture to welcome it whenever it comes and to make Advantage of it And I think the best Time to fall into Councils tending to this great End will be after the Conclusion of this general Peace when no Engagement abroad forces His Majesty to have so much need of Money from his People For the Time to repair the Harms that Storms have done a House is in fair Weather and to mend a leaky Ship she must be brought ashore God of Heaven send your Lordship to be an happy Instrument in the Proposal and Application of such Councils and that we may take warning by the poor Spaniards Example whose ill Conduct of late in the Government has so far subjected them to their Neighbours Disesteem and Insolence and Humour as well as to their Conquests Violence and Oppression which I confess have been enough to put them upon such desperate Councils as your Lordship mentions of giving up all to the French in these Countries rather than be the bare Guardians of other Frontiers And yet all these Misfortunes are the natural Consequences of their Conduct and will never fail befalling any Prince that follows their Example I wish That might befal the French to temper a little such an over-grown Greatness but I doubt it much from the present King's Dispositions among whose Qualities those of Carelesness or lavishing his Treasures I am afraid are none Therefore I wish him engaged in some very charming Pleasures or else in some more difficult Enterprises than his last and where we may not have so great a Share That which they talk on here may possibly prove so which is drawing or forcing the Empire to chuse the Dauphin King of the Romans For though his Party be grown strangely powerful in Germany and if Brandenburgh be falling into it as is believed none will be left to the House of Austria that I know of unless Saxony and Triers yet such a body so differently composed as the Empire should methinks very hardly move all one way in any new Course Monsieur Colbert talks of his Master's sending immediately ten or fifteen thousand Men for the Relief of Candy which were a glorious and Christian Council and in all ways that can be to be cherished and applauded And if any Offices could be done towards engaging the French Court in that Design by Us or the Dutch I think they were not ill bestow'd about which I have entertain'd Monsieur Beverning who is of my mind and have insinuated the same Notions among the German Ministers here who swallow it greedily and I hope it may take Effect and help to free all these Parts of the Jealousie which so great an Army must needs give as this Peace is like to leave idle upon the French Hands I intend to begin my Journey to Brussels to morrow Monsieur Beverning gone to day but I doubt I shall be five or six Days upon the Way not knowing any thing now that presses me to more than ordinary Haste I received 600 l. owing me upon my Employment there before my coming away and was very sorry to find by a Letter of my Wife 's that the Fear she had of my being dissappointed in that Particular made her draw up a Memorial which it seems the Council was troubled with about my private Concernments I may very truly and justly disown it as I do and hope she will be pardoned for too forward a Care and Concernment in that business For as to the Charge of my Journey here when your Lordship thinks fit to command it I shall send you the exact Account which my Secretary keeps of all I spend and leave it in your Lordship's Hands for His Majesty to do as he pleases in it which is all the Trouble I shall give you or my self about it I am ever with equal Passion and Truth c. TO The Marquis OF Castel-Rodrigo Aix May 8. S. N. 1668. My Lord I Received yours of the 4th Instant and am glad your Excellency is so extreamly satisfied with the Moderation as you are pleased to style it of the Baronde Bargeyck while at the same time you are so much provoked at the Complaints I made of his Conduct here I shall always openly confess that seeing Don Juan's Arrival with the intended Supplies delay'd and perhaps wholly frustrated seeing Holland so desperately fond of the Peace without considering the Interests of Spain seeing the Emperor appear wholly disinteressed in the Matter seeing Spain had used no Endeavors to engage the King my Master or Sueden otherwise than by fair words And that His Majesty was not in a condition to enter into the Affair alone upon pure Considerations of Generosity or of a Danger at distance Seeing also that Spain approved even the first Project of Peace drawn by Monsieur de Lionne I thought upon all these Considerations that it was their Interest sincerely to finish
la veue de me cosoler avec vous je ne veux point la finir en y mêlant quelque chose qui soit etranger á votre douleur Je ne vous parleray donc point d'affaires et je vous diray seulement que le Roy mon Maitre me presse tous les jours sur les preparatifs de mon depart je n'y apporteray d'autres retardements que ceux que mes affaires domestiques rendent indispensables aprés une si longue absence En attendant je puis vous assûrer que je n'ay rien apperçû icy qui puisse tant soit peu alterer ou rallentir les soins de nos veritables et communs interests que je fay consister dans la fermeté et la durée de notre derniere Alliance vous verrez cela plus au long á mon arrivée Je Suis c. To Sir John Temple Sheen July 22. 1668 SIR THough I doubt our late Motions may have lost or delay'd some of your Letters which we have now been some time in want of yet I presume ours have had their constant Course to you though from several Parts And though mine have not been frequent upon the Permission you give me to spare my own Eyes and Time when they are otherwise taken up and trust to my Sister 's entertaining you Yet upon my return home after three Years absence I could not but give you some Account of my coming and stay here and of what I can foresee is like to follow it both as to my own Particular and to the publique Affairs in which That seems at present to be so much involved After the Conclusion of the Tripple Alliance and the Peace of Aix I was at an end of my Ambition having seen Flanders saved as if it had been by one of the Miracles the House of Austria has they say been used to and the general Interests of Christendom secured against the Power and Attempts of France and at the same time the Consideration and Honour of His Majesty and his Crown abroad raised to a Degree it has not been in for some Ages past and we had no reason to expect it should be in some Ages to come upon the Decline it felt after the Business of Chattam and the Peace of Breda that succeeded it I returned from Aix to Brussels without other Thoughts than of continuing in that Station till I grew wearier of it than I was like to do very suddenly of a Place I confess I love But immediately upon my Arrival there I met with Letters from my Lord Arlington which brought me the King's Orders to continue the Equipage of an Ambassador that I was in upon my Aix Journey in order to my serving His Majesty in the same Character at the Hague whether he was resolved to send me and to renew upon occasion of our late Alliances a Character which the Crown of England had discontinued in that Country since King James's Time In order hereunto I was left at liberty to take my Leave of the Marquis and to return into England as soon as I pleased which I did by the Way of Holland and left most of my Servants and Horses at Utrecht Upon my Arrival here I was received both by the King and Court a great deal better than I could deserve or pretend But People seem generally pleased with the Councils and Negotiations in which I have had so much Part since Christmas last and I understand not Courts so ill how little soever I have been used to them as not to know that one ought not to lose the Advantage of coming home with the common Opinion of some Merits or good Hitts at one's Back if one's Business be de pousser sa Fortune And I am put enough in mind of it upon this Occasion by several of those many new Friends one would think I had at this time of Day as well as by some of my old ones But I cannot imagine why I should pretend to have deserved more than my Pay of the King for which I served Him in my late Employments and if I got Honour by them 't was so much more than I had to reckon upon Besides I should be sorry to ask Money of him at a time when for ought I can judge by the Cry of the Court He wants it more than I do The Spanish Ambassador and Baron d' Isola as well as others of my Friends would needs be asking a Title for Me and 't is with difficulty enough that I have prevented it But 't is That I am sure I never can have a mind to and if it should ever be offered me I resolve it shall either begin with you if you desire it or if not with my Son which I had much rather But I suppose nothing of this can happen in our Court without Pursuit and so I reckon my self in all these Points just where I was about six Months ago but only designed for another Ambassy and no Man knows how That will end I am very much press'd to dispatch my Preparations for it by my Lord Keeper and Lord Arlington who are extream kind to Me as well as to the Measures lately taken by their Ministry and seem to value themselves a great deal upon them They say all the Business the King now has both at home and abroad will turn upon my Hand in Holland by keeping the French from breaking in upon our late Alliances and the Confidence between Us and by drawing the Emperor and Princes of the Empire into a common Guaranty of the Peace and thereupon they are mighty earnest with me to hasten away On t'other side the Commissioners of the Treasury seem to have more mind to my Company here than I could expect For after some of them had tryed to hinder the King's Resolution of sending either an Ambassador at all into Holland upon Pretence of so long Disuse of that Character or Me in particular when That could not be carried they prepared my Way by entring upon new Regulations in the Exchequer among which those concerning foreign Employments brought down the Equipage Money of Ambassadors from three thousand Pounds as it has been since the King came in to fifteen hundred Pounds in France and Spain and to one thousand Pounds in all other Courts And their Allowance from one hundred Pounds a Week to ten Pounds a Day in France and Spain and to seven in other Places Though this be pretended by the Commissioners as only a Piece of a general Scheme of Parsimony they find necessary in the present Condition of the Revenue Yet I understand it as calculated just at this Time particularly for Me and my Lord Arlington confesses he thinks it so too and takes part in it as a piece of Envy or Malice to Himself as well as to Me from some who are spighted at all that has lately passed between Us and Holland and at the Persons who have been at the
Discovery and they will thereby render themselves infamous to the World and will suffer accordingly I know the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo will be as jealous in that Affair as is possible And Ogniate who was the fittest Person alive to be sent on that Errand will be vigilant to the utmost and I am confident will advertise the Marquis upon the least Discovery I know not whether he be enough known to you But trust me He is very worthy of your Friendship which is due to him from all good Englishmen having expressed the same Veneration to the King and the same Civility and Kindness to us who had the Honor at the same time to attend his Majesty when we were in Flanders as he can do now when we are at Whitehall And as that Respect of his was then of great Use and Benefit to his Majesty so it was apparently to his own Prejudice and Disadvantage So that if we are not all kind to him we deserve no more such Friends I am SIR Your Affectionate Servant Clarendon From Sir William Coventry Septemb. 21. 1667. SIR SINCE my last to you I have acquainted his Majesty and his Royal Highness with your having disposed the blank Passes sent to you and that the People of those Countries were still desirous of those Passes though there was another Provision made for their Security by the Agreement with Monsieur Ognate Whereupon his Majesty gave Consent to the sending over some more of them By this Conveyance I send you five of them More shall be sent hereafter if you continue to desire them But I thought not fit to swell this Pacquet too much The French Fleet hath been in the Channel and Prince Rupert's Fleet having been driven from their Anchors with a Storm and by other such Accidents he did not meet with them at their first coming and now we are uncertain whether they are not gone back again To morrow will tell us more of that than I can now affirm The Storm which drove Prince Rupert's Fleet from their Anchors dispers'd some of the French Fleet and seven of them on the Right fell into our white Squadron One of them a Ship called the Ruby of fifty four Guns and five hundred Men we took and some of our Frigats pursued the rest with what Success I know not as yet I am apt to believe the Body of their Fleet is gone back again towards Brest or Rochel We hear De Ruyter is dead and another Admiral chosen This Day the Parliament voted that they will supply his Majesty proportionably to his Occasions or Words to that Effect â—o our Neighbours will see our Hearts do not fail us in all our Misfortunes I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant William Coventry From the Duke of Ormond Kilkenny Octob. 14. 1666. SIR I Have more of yours to acknowledge than I have by me to take particular Notice of They were very pertinent Informations as things then went And some of them got hither with so much speed that they out-run any Intelligence I could get out of England To morrow I shall be in your Livery and perhaps try whether your Brussels Camlet will resist Irish Rain as I have known it do that of Flanders I must thank you for the Present as coming very seasonably both in respect of the time of the Year and that for ought I can yet find my Michaelmas Rent would hardly have purchased two Cloaks And that your Stuff will make me if slhall be honestly dealt with I know both from hence and out of England you are informed of all that passes here The Commissioners and their Dependents I mean Lawyers and the Train belonging to that Court have all the Business and will have all the Money and consequently if they please much of the Land contended for and to be distributed In England they are revenging upon us here the falling of their Rents but I doubt not repairing themselves They have us and perhaps the King at an Advantage The King must be supplied and England only can do it I wish we could hear of some Overtures towards Peace then would the King be freed from a Necessity of consenting to unreasonable Things or we should be the better able to bear the Interdicture of our Trade with England For to that upon the Matter the forbidding us to send our Cattle to their Markets will amount I am very really SIR Your most affectionate Servant Ormonde From Sir William Coventry Whitehall Novemb. 2. 1666. SIR I Have received the Favour you did me of the 5th S. N. and received with it the Bill of Exchange for Fifty Pounds which I doubt not will suddenly be paid I owe so many of those Advantages to your Care and Kindness that they become ordinary and do not leave me any new Expressions for my Thanks We have great Expectations what the Suedes Army at Bremen and the new Confederation against them will produce We hear the Duke of Savoy and the State of Geneva are falling out which probably will not want Partners in its Success So that the Influence of 66 will extend it self further than the Puritans Allowance for the Revelations to be fulfilled in which they confine to England We are debating still in Parliament which way to raise Money but we draw nearer a Conclusion and I believe the next Week will bring it to good Maturity I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant W. Coventry From the Duke of Ormond Dublin Decemb. 18. 1666. SIR YOurs of the 9 19 past found me on my Way hither where I purpose to spend the rest of the Winter How the Summer will be spent seems very doubtful Our Preparations for the War would make one think we are sure of a Peace which may be well said without any Reflection on the King and his Ministers I am once to thank you for your great Civility to my Nephew Clancarty in whose Consideration you have undertaken to endeavour a Pass Colonel Murphy and for the Disposition of the Money the Colonel was ordered if he thought fit to put into your Hand I have by this Post written to Sir John Shaw to draw it into England when he shall find it best And I am prepared to pay the Colonel here I believe you heard as soon of the Suppression as of the raising of the Scottish Commotion perhaps equal Credit would not be given in Holland to both It made me hasten hither and prepare my self to have kept Christmas in the North if the Rebellion had lasted What Discovery will be made and Justice done upon the Offenders you will receive sooner Knowledge of out of England than from hence I am very confident they had Well-wishers here which is a good or rather a bad Step to Correspondency as that is to Conjunction Those that think well of Presbyterians distinguish those Fellows and call them Remonstrators I think the true Difference is These thought they had Power to change the Government and the
the obtaining of what we pretend I can add nothing to my last upon the Business of Surinam being engaged in my Endeavours of disposing those of Zeland to let it pass smooth when it comes to the States General Such Stops being easier prevented than removed while Men are so apt to persist in what they have once said In the mean Time the Pensioner of Zeland presses me to procure the Names of such as his Majesty intends to employ as Commissioners before the Orders here are consigned me according as they desired in their last Letter Wherein you may observe the Names of three Men to be inserted on purpose that his Majesty might decline them in this Commission If you please to send me the Names I suppose it may be necessary to the expediting of these Orders unless you should think of any Inconvenience in it which occurs not to me In Pursuit of the late Conferences whereof I gave you Account in my last we have agreed upon this enclosed Project to be sent the Constable as that which he may hope will be signed upon the Mony being paid and wherein I am sure there is not any Thing of the least moment changed as to what concerns his Majesty though the changing of the Form that you sent me could not be avoided because it was without Introduction or Conclusion and besides it went a Step further than the Suedish Minister was willing to do in making it an Act to the Spaniards whereas this runs only as an Instrument between themselves of which the Spanish Ministers are to have only an Authentick Copy And since the Suedes had rather have it this way I thought best to agree with them at least if the Spaniards will be contented with it But I would not be induced to engage his Majesty in point of Time though I was never press'd with more Earnestness to any Thing both by the Spaniards and by the Dutch who sent their Deputies twice to persuade me to it because they were unwilling to leave the Constable that way of escaping us And to say the Truth in my own Judgment I thought it very little material but I had no Orders to go further in it and have to the Spaniards taken upon my self the not having given his Majesty any notice of that Pretension early enough to have it included in my Powers as you will see by the inclosed Copy of the Letter I yesterday wrote the Constable in Conjunction with another from the States to press Conclusion in this Affair For particular Occurrents I refer to what goes to Mr. Cook being unwilling to charge my self with the Credit of current News which I have ever found so uncertain that a Man may be considered more for what he does not write than what he does Yet I will trouble you with two small Matters whether they deserve it or no. Monsieur de Rohan Brother to the Duke de Mombaçon having sold his Place of Grand Veneur for four hundred and odd thousand Livres came hither last Week to dispose of a hundred thousand Crowns in this Country tho' Interest is not half so high as in France and has done it Which I reflected on because I had heard formerly he was a Person as well with his Master as almost any at Court There was executed this Week at Amsterdam a Person of very good Quality and Credit among them only for having engaged the Copies of an Obligation he had from the Admiralty instead of the Original to some Persons from whom he took up Mony upon them And tho' he was Nephew to one of the Burgomasters of that Town and Brother to the Treasurer of Zealand and all the Instances that could be were made for having him condemned all his Life to a Hole where he could neither see nor stir with offer of repaying all the Mony he had taken up And afterwards a thousand Pounds would have been given to have had him executed in Prison yet he could not escape losing his Head with the common Forms in Publick to the Loss of his Creditors who were as much concerned to save him as his Friends Which I observed as a remarkable Strain of the Justice here so much different from the Style of most other Places I am Sir c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Feb. 7. S. N. 1670. My LORD SINCE my last I have received your Lordship 's of the 28th past and doubt not but before this arrives you will be fully satisfied by the late Accounts I have given of our Progress here towards the Conclusion of what had so long depended between Us and the Spanish Ministers I cannot yet say the Mony is paid but I see nothing that wants towards it only the adjusting of that Conjunction demanded by the Constable of Merchants at Antwerp For the Spanish Dealings are in so ill Credit that 't is hard to find any who will give Caution for such a Sum to the Spaniards and in their own Dominions where they can plead and judge themselves I believe the States must at last engage to the Merchants here that they will indemnify them from all that shall fall out on this Occasion though after the Arrival of the Ratifications from England and Sueden the Spaniards should make a Querelle d'Allmand with their Correspondents at Antwerp and force them to any Prejudice without any Pretence I gave Monsieur de Witt the first News of the French King's Declaration to remit the Judgments of the Differences depending on the Peace to his Majesty's and the Crown of Sueden's Arbitration He thought the leaving out the States was something discourteous on the French side but said however he was very glad of the Thing being done and hoped as the Business should receive no Hurt by any Resentment on their Side so it would receive none on our Side by any Effect of the great Cajolry of France especially since this Resolution appeared by the Time to have another Source than only the Civility or Deference of that Court towards his Majesty I doubt the Confidence in this Declaration will stop the Levies which were intended for this Spring though these Ministers are not the most believing in the French Promises and I am not very confident the Effect of this last may not be spoiled by some unreasonable Answer from Spain upon it having been confirmed in such a Suspicion by the Baron d'Isola's Opinion who told me he would write to the Marquess Castel-Rodrigo to advise that the Queen should accept this Offer of France * Provided the most Christian King would refer to the same Arbitrage all the Contraventions of the Peace whereof Spain complain'd at the Conference of Lisle Pourveu que le Roy tres-Chrêtien remettroit au méme Arbitrage toutes les Contreventions de la Paix dont l'Espagne s'estoit plaint á la Conference de Lisle Which concerns the Spoils of Burgundy and which France would never admit to give jointly in the Conference with their Pretensions about
Majesty's Character and the next Morning began my Conference with the Eight Commissioners of secret Affairs I exposed my Powers and saw theirs In pursuit whereof I offered them the Project of the defensive League as that which was to be the Foundation of all further Negotiations and without which perhaps neither of us should be very forward to speak our Minds with Confidence and Freedome in what concerned our Neighbours being likely therein to shock so great Powers abroad I told them for the rest His Majesty having resolved as far as he could in Honour to comply with the Sense of the States in the Offices of Mediation between the two Crowns I was first to expect from them the Knowledge of the States Resolution in Case they were already agreed I took this Course in my first Proposals because I found here that the Provinces were not yet resolved upon theirs five of them only having fallen upon that of Monsieur de Witt but Zealand being of Opinion to agrre with France for dividing Flanders and Utrecht for suffering France only to retain the last Years Conquest by way of Compromis till their Pretensions were adjudged before competent Arbiters to be agreed by the two Crowns or by the joint Mediators And I was in hopes that knowing His Majesty's Resolutions to join with them before they were agreed among themselves it might produce some Councils among them a little more favourable to Flanders and consequently more honourable to his Majesty After my Proposals Monsieur de Witt was by the rest of the Commissioners desired to speak for them all in the Conduct of our Conferences who after a Preamble of the usual Forms and Complements upon His Majesty's happy Dispositions to enter into a nearer Alliance with the State upon the mentioned Points declared the same Resolution in the States and allowing our Confidence by a defensive League for the Basis of the rest said the States were very willing de faire infuser les Clauses pour la souretè commune dans les Articles de la Mediation and was large upon this Argument that the last being of very pressing Haste as well as Necessity and they having already Order from their Provinces to proceed upon it they could not have the same Powers upon the Defensive being a new Matter under six Weeks or two Months Time but as soon as they received them would proceed to give their Ambassadour in England Powers to fall upon that Treaty which must for a Basis have at the same time an Adjustment of Matters of Commerce for his forementioned Reasons I thought fit to cut this Matter short and told them directly I had no Orders to proceed upon any other Points but in Consequence or Conjunction of the defensive League in which I thought His Majesty had all the Reason that could be both because he would not venture a War 's ending in Flanders to begin upon England and on the other side knew the States whose Danger was nearer would never be capable of taking any vigorous Resolutions in their Neighbours Affairs till they were secure at home by His Majesty's Defence That His Majesty thought the most generous and friendly Advance that could be was made on his Side by His Proposition being Himself so much more out of Danger than they were and so much courted to a Conjunction with France to their Prejudice as well as that of Flanders that they had not made a Difficulty of such Alliances with Princes who had lately desmelèes with them as well as His Majesty and that God be thanked His Majesty was not in Condition to have such an Offer refused by any Prince or State of Christendom These were the Sum of our Discourses tho' very long and such as occasioned the Commissioners to withdraw thrice and consult together tho' nothing was resolved but that Monsieur de Witt and Monsieur Isbrant should spend the Afternoon with me at my Lodging to endeavour the adjusting of Circumstances between us since we seemed to agree in Substance That Conference ended as I gave your Lordship Notice that Evening upon the Point that instead of the Project of Schevelin or any new Adjustment concerning Marine Affairs the States would proceed upon His Majesty's Project of a Defensive League provided the provisional Articles in the Breda Treaty might be inserted and perpetuated in this and thereupon we should expect His Majesty's Answer to what I should write that Night The next being Saturday Morning I desired another Conference with my two Commissioners but could not have it till the Afternoon they being to report that Morning to the States what had passed the Evening before At our Meeting Afternoon they told me their Communication of all to the States and their Lordships Resolution upon them that it was necessary the Articles provisional should be inserted in the Treaty so as I began to doubt a Stop of all till His Majesty's Answer which subjected all to Uncertainties I knew the French Ambassadour was grown into very ill Humour upon my Arrival and fallen into Complaints and Expostulations with several of the States and the more because He could not see Monsieur de Witt from my coming over till that Time tho' he had often press'd it and had an Hour given him the next Day Monsieur de Witt having promised to see him as he went to Church after Noon Upon this I knew likewise he had dispatch'd a Courier to Paris which I thought would make no Delay and therefore resolved to fall upon all the Instances and Expedients I could to draw up a sudden Conclusion I told them I desired it extremely before I could hear again out of England because I had left Monsieur Ruvigny very busie at my coming away and not unbefriended that I feared the same Artifices of France to disturb us here and perhaps Monsieur D'Estrades might at his next Meeting endeavour to infuse some Jealousies into them by the Relation of what had passed between Your Lordship and Monsieur Ruvigny three or four Days after the Date of my first Instructions Upon which I told them frankly as His Majesty gave me Leave what had passed in that Affair Monsieur de Witt asked me whether I could shew him the Paper drawn up between you and knowing I had it not desired earnestly I would procure it him assuring me no Use should be made of it but by joint Consent but saying nothing would serve so far to justifie them in Case of a Breach growing necessary between them and France I promised to write to Your Lordship about it which I desire you will please to take Notice of I told Monsieur de Witt what Confidence I had given His Majesty of his sincere Proceedings and how I had been supported by Your Lordship in those Suggestions against the Opinion of some other great Men What Advantage these would take if they saw our whole Negotiation was stop'd upon a Thing that looked like a Chicanerie since Articles provisional till
some of the small Towns to prevent and ruine a Council of the greatest Importance to Christendom as well as to our two Nations that had been on Foot in many Ages That unless the States General would conclude and sign the Treaty immediately and trust to the Approbation of their several Provinces and Towns after it was done I should give it for gone and think no more of it Monsieur de Witt seemed to think this impossible said no such Thing had ever been done since the first Institution of their Commonwealth that tho' it was true the States General might sign a Treaty yet they could not Ratifie it without Recourse to their Principals and that they should venture their Heads in Signing it if their Principals not approving it should question them for doing it without Orders that he hoped the Forms might be expedited in three Weeks Time and that all Care that could be should be taken to prevent the Addresses of the French Ambassadour among the Provinces I cut the Matter short and told him I continued of my first Opinion to see it immediately agreed between Me and the Commissioners and then Signed by the States which might be done in four or five Days and that the Deputies might safely trust to the Approbation of their Principals in a Point of so great and evident publick Interest That for my Part I know not how this Delay and thereby Hazard of the Affair might be interpreted in England nor what Change in my Orders it might produce That I had now Powers to conclude an Alliance of the last Consequence to the Safety of Flanders and this State that if it should miscarry by the too great Caution of the Deputies in Point of Form for ought I knew they might venture their Heads that Way and more deservedly than by signing at present what all of them believed would not only be ratified but applauded by their Principals With this I left him and the rest that passed in the Progress of this Affair as well as in my Audience or with the Commissioners Your Lordship has it in my Dispatch to My Lord Arlington to whom you will please to communicate these more secret Springs that by knowing the Conception the Forming the Throws and Birth of this Child you may the better consult how it is to be nourished till it grow to Strength and thereby fit to atchieve those great Adventures for which it seems designed I am ever with equal Passion and Truth My Lord Your Lordship 's most faithful and most humble Servant To Mr. Godolphin Hague Jan. 28. S. N. 1668. SIR THO' the Interruption of our Commerce hath been long yet I thought it necessary to renew it at this Time and thereby let you know what has lately broken it on my Side that you may not believe any Interruption of yours has had a worse Effect upon me of late than it ever had before being an Accident I have often been subject to About the end of last Month N. S. I passed through this Place with private Commission from His Majesty to sound the Mind of the States in what concerns the present Quarrel between the two Crowns and how they were disposed to join with him in the Share of a War or Project of a Peace to be endeavoured by our joint Offices between them From hence I went to London with the private Account of what I had in Charge After five Days Stay there I was dispatch'd back as His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to the States with full Power to treat and conclude upon those Points which His Majesty esteemed necessary for our common Safety and the Repose of Christendom in this Conjuncture Upon the 6th I arrived here had my first Audience on the 18th and on the 23d were signed by me and the Commissioners given me by the States with full Powers three several Instruments of our present Treaty The first containing a League defensive and perpetual between His Majesty and the States against all Persons without exception that shall invade either of them with Agreement to furnish each other upon Occasion with forty Ships of War of which fourteen betwixt sixty and eighty Guns and four hundred Men a piece one with another Fourteen between forty and sixty Guns and three hundred Men a piece and of the other Twelve none under thirty six Guns and a hundred and fifty Men Besides this with six Thousand Foot and four hundred Horse or Money in stead of them at the Choice of the Invaded and to be repaid within three Years after the End of the War the Proportions of Money to the several Parts of the said Aid being ascertained in the Treaty The second Instrument contains our joint Obligations to dispose France to make Peace in Flanders upon one of the Alternatives already proposed and likewise to dispose Spain to accept it before the End of May but in Case of Difficulty made by them to dispose France however to stop all further Progress of its own Arms there and leave it wholly to the Allies to procure the Ends proposed in this League The third Instrument contains certain separate Articles between His Majesty and the States Signed at the same Time and of the same Force with the Treaty but not to be committed to Letters 'T is hardly imaginable the Joy and Wonder conceived here upon the Conclusion of this Treaty brought to an Issue in five Days nor the Applause given to His Majesty's Resolution as the wisest and happiest that could in this Conjuncture be taken by any Prince both for his own and his Neighbours Affairs nor are the Reflections upon the Conduct of it less to the Advantage of the present Ministry in England the Thing being almost done here assoon as my Journey was known in London and before my Errand was suspected by any publick Minister there Three Days after our signing the Suedish Ambassadour signed another Instrument jointly with me and the States Commissioners obliging his Master to enter as a Principal into the same Alliance so soon as some Pretensions he has from the Emperour and Spain are satisfied by our good Offices between them After which Count Dona parted as Ambassadour likewise from that Crown for England where the rest of that Affair will be negotiated and in his Company my Brother Henry Temple with the Whole Account of my Business and the Treaties signed in Order to their Ratification for which a Month is allowed tho' the States promise theirs within fifteen Days after the Date When those arrive and are exchanged I return to my Residence at Brussels to see the Issue of this Business which now takes up the Thoughts and Discourse of all Christendom and from which most Princes will resolve to take their Measures I suppose My Lord Sandwich upon his Way and therefore content my self only with giving you this Trouble and the Professions of my being SIR Your c. To the KING Hague Jan. 29th S.N. 1668. May it please Your Majesty
Commerce provided we are not alarmed too much and too near with the Growth of the French Greatness And I wind up all with pressing him still to an Acceptation of the Alternative and to embrace the Peace according to our Project And thus we fence here at present of all which your Lordship I believe will receive the Detail more at large by the Holland-Pacquet in the Dispatches past between me and Monsieur de Witt since my Arrival here of which I desir'd him to send Copies to their Ambassadors in England to be by them communicated to your Lordship because more Uncertainty in the Nieuport-Pacquet and the present Want of a settled Cypher have hindered larger Transmissions this way and more directly to your Lordship's Hands Yesterday came in the Spanish Letters and though I have not seen the Marquess since yet by what I have from his Secretary and the Count Monterey I have reason to believe That Don Juan is on his way hither and now at Sea with considerable Supplies of Men and Money which are very necessary here either for carrying on a War or inducing a Peace The Particulars I cannot assure though the common Talk is of eight Thousand Spaniards and six hundred thousand Crowns in Specie and eight hundred thousand in Remise 'T is very possible your Lordship may hear more there of his coming and see him sooner than we shall here as well as judge better What or how much it will import to the Effect or Defeat the Advance or Diversion of the present Councils What occurs to your Lordship upon it and will relate to my Conduct here I hope to receive from you by the first not esteeming any thing well begun without a Thread at least from your Lordship to guide me nor well perform'd 'till I receive your Approbation upon which depends so much the Satisfaction as well as good Fortune of c. To Monsieur de Witt. Antwerp Febr. 27. S. N. 1668. SIR I Have received much Satisfaction as well aâ— Honour by yours of the 25th and am very glad to observe the same Conformity of Sentiments between us since we parted that there ever was while I resided at the Hague I shall write to you now with my own Ink having already done it with that of the Marquess who would not be satisfied 'till I sent you that Dispatch And I was forced to shew him my Letter before I sealed it to see whether it were agreeable with what he had desired me to tell you upon that occasion I had at my first Audience prest him so closely to declare himself upon the Alternative and surmounted all his Excuses upon defect of Powers by desiring that he would do it by way of Limitation not to be ratifyed 'till the Queen of Spain's further Pleasure that at last he told me he would comply provided France could be brought to ratify their Renunciation in Form in the Parliament of Paris to content themselves with an Equivalent for the Cities taken which advance so far into the Heart of the Country And lastly if in case of a Refusal from France he might be assured before hand of the Assistance of England and Holland by a common Concert I told him That for the two Points of the Renunciation and the Equivalent he might reckon from our joint Offices upon all we could obtain from France in favor of Spain For as to the Equivalent our own Interest oblig'd us to it that we might leave so much a stronger Barrier between France and Holand And as for the Renunciation we desir'd it too but do not conceive it a Thing upon which Spain ought to be too stiff since our Guaranty was the only strong and solid Renunciation that could be made upon this occasion And for the Assurance he desir'd of being assisted in case of a Refusal from France I did not doubt but he had heard at least the substance of our secret Articles to that purpose because their Ambassador at the Hague had told me that a Jew of Amsterdam had sent him a Copy of them by which he must needs be well inform'd of our mutual Obligations as well as of our Intentions not only to assist Spain in case of a Refusal from France but to engage our selves in the Quarrel by an open War of all our Forces against that Crown After much Discourse to this Purpose I thought fit for his entire satisfaction upon the Article of our assisting Spain to let him know clearly how far he might hope from us in the Point of the Renunciation and to remove a Thought which Don Estavan de Gamarra had given him as coming from me That there was something in the Articles by which it should appear that we would not force Spain in case of a Refusal For these Reasons I say I thought good to read to him our three separate Articles without giving him a Copy for he profest to me that he never receiv'd one from the Jew tho' he did the substance of them both from him and the Baron de Bargeyck I do not know whether I did well in shewing them to him but if you think otherwise I hope you will excuse me upon my good Intentions and my usual plain dealing to inform freely those I treat with of what they have to hope or to fear The Marquess took no Offence at our two first Articles and onely said He could not comprehend why the States being newly Enemies to Portugal and having still a Controversie with them should desire so much to see them strengthned by a Peace with Spain I told him my Opinion was That they drove on this Affair because they believ'd that without a Peace with Portugal Spain would not recover it self enough to make head against France and reduce Affairs of Christendom to the Ballance that is necessary He was satisfied with this Answer and spoke no more of the Business of the Renunciation But upon That of the Assistance we promis'd he said That the Words of the third Article were strong enough but in too general Terms and that after he should have accepted the Alternative France might yet during the next Month or April make some Enterprises upon the Places on this side before the new Levies could be raised and take some of them if he were not furnished with three or four thousand Foot which might be easily done from Holland And tho' I told him that we could not concert further with him before he had accepted the Alternative and by that means cast the Refusal upon France and by consequence the Force of our Arms in case of a War which we would not declare 'till we were assur'd upon which Side the Refusal would lye For all that he would not be satisfied 'till I had writ you that Letter from which however I lookt for no other Effect than to let him understand from you what he had already learnt enough from me On Sunday-Morning your Deputies arriv'd and we had a joynt Audience with
that Court His Excellency's said Acceptation and thereupon to negotiate and conclude the same on that Side And to the End that no Objection may be made by France against the present Expedition of this Truce in order to an ensuing Treaty and Peace We send You likewise by this Express the Marquis's last Answer to our Instances Yesterday made for the Acceptation also of the Alternative which is so full and so direct to the Ends of our late Treaty that we have now nothing left to do on this Side the Remainder of the whole Negotiation lying on your Parts at Paris which we are here very much pleased with seeing it is devolved to so much abler Hands I hope You will place the whole Strength of His Majesty's and the States General 's Credit in that Court upon an immediate Consent to the Suspension of Arms knowing how dangerous all new Accidents may prove to the fair Hopes and Prospect in which we are at present of a Peace and withal how far His Majesty and the States are engaged to take Part in any Action that shall begin after the Marquis's accepting the Alternative as well as all other Points of their late Project for bringing about so happy an End For a good Presage of this greater Peace we received here the News of That of Portugal the very Evening which brought us so happily the Marquis's Answer upon the Alternative which has so much raised the Hearts of the Spaniards here that we are likely to have less Thanks for pressing them so far to a prejudicial Peace as they esteem it on this side But since they are already obliged it will depend wholly upon France to hinder the Conclusion of this in the same Season with the other which I will believe them too wise to do as well as too constant to the Assurances they have already given His Majesty the States and several other Princes in this Point of which the immediate consenting a Suspension of Arms will shew the Meaning and Effect I shall no further increase your present Trouble than by the Professions of my being Sir Your most humble Servant TO THE Count de Molina Spanish Ambassador at London March 7. 1668. My Lord YOUR Excellence cannot doubt of my Satisfaction in arriving at Brussels to find my self there immediately possessed of your Letter with the inclosed Paper tho' the News of your Health was more necessary to me than that of the Unreasonableness of one of your Neighbours and true Interests of the others which I find so well described there But the best Ink in the World is not a Balsom that can cure such Wounds they must find their Remedy from more powerful Medicines which the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo has given us reason to hope if France will still chuse rather to fall out with all the World than to make a Peace so much to their own advantage as that we offer them At least it is certain that your Excellency with a stroak of your Pen has brought to light the most covered Designs of your Enemies undeceived with the greatest Clearness your Friends and put Flanders under the securest Protection of which I cannot help rejoycing with You as the Author For what relates to Father Patrick how much soever I concern my self in his Fortunes I do not yet see any way that it can be in my power to serve him on this Occasion the last French Conquests having determined the Dispute between the Abbot Arnolphino and the Marquis of Baden about the Abbey de la Charité But the Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo has assured me he will find some other way of shewing the Esteem He has both for the Merits and Person of Father Patrick to whom I hope Your Excellency will do me Justice having endeavoured though without Success by this unhappy Conjuncture all that lay in my Power to serve Him I Kiss Your Excellency's Hands and am Yours c. Al Conde de Molina 7 Marco 1668. Sennor Mio NO puede V. E. dudar del gusto que he tenido enllegar a Brusselleus aviendome yo allado a qui con su carta en las manos con el quaderno adjunto aunque a mi era mucho mas necessaria la noticia de su salud de V. E. que no de la sinrazon de uno suyo vezino ny del interez verdadero de los otros que van muy bien traçados en el dicho quaderno Pero la mejor tinta del mondo no es balsamo bostante para curar tales heridas y es menester remedios mas fuertes a los quales la prudencia del Sennor Marques de Castel Rodrigo a dado lugar si la Francia par sus peccados mas quisiere la guerra con todo el mondo que no la poz avantajada que la hemos offrecido a lo menos se puede dezir que S. E. con un rasyo de pluma a sacado en luz los desinios mas encubiertos de sus enimigos a dado a los interessados el mas claro dessenganno y puesto las cosas de Flandes debaxodel amparo mas fuerte que se podia buscar de que no me puedo impedir de dar a V. E. la enorabuena Por interessado que soy en los aumentos del Padre Patricio no veo come sara possible servirle mas en esta occasion aviendo la Francia con su postrera conquista determinada el pleyto entre el Abad Arnolfin y el Marques de Baden en la de la Abadia de la caridad Pero el Sennor Marques me ha prometido con muchos veras de hallar otra manera di manifestar en quanto stima la personna y los meritos del dicho padre a quien V. E. me ha de justifiar por averme empennado quanto era possible en suo negotio aunque faltado en alcancarle por la desdicha de las coyunturas B. L. M. D. V. E. Su Mayor Servidor To my Lord Arlington Brussels March 13. S. N. 1668. My Lord THE last Post brought me none from England nor has this Week as yet brought me any from Spain so that 't is France only at this Time that entertains Us. The Dispatch return'd Us late last Night from Sir John Trevor upon the point of the Alternative has given the Town here occasion to talk of the Peace as a Thing done though I know not yet what the Marquis says to it having not seen Him since but think it possible He may be as much surprised with their Acceptation as Sir John Trevor says They were with His. It seems plain to Me that France desires to pursue the War but fears our engaging in it and to hinder That will use all the Address that can be to lay the Obstruction of Peace upon the Spaniards They on the other Side desire to continue the War provided they may be sure of our and Holland's Assistance and to that End if they play
Dispositions of his Neighbors may the better take his own Measures in this great Conjuncture But to explain this Matter I must run it up to the Original Your Lordship remembers that after the French Invasions and Successes last year in Flanders and the Peace at Breda when they found how much both England and Holland resented the Progress of their Arms in Flanders They sent a Declaration to the States General that they were willing to make a Peace with Spain either upon Spain's quitting all their Right to the late conquered Places or else to the County of Burgundy Cambray Air and St. Omers and would leave to Spain the choice of either of these Alternatives The Dutch were perplexed what Use to make of this Declaration being frighted at the Danger of Flanders but newly and faintly reconciled to England and not knowing how we would take the Invasion of Flanders In these Doubts I found them when His Majesty sent me first to sound their Intentions and immediately after to enter into Leagues with them for our own mutual Defence and that of Flanders The King would have joyned with them for the recovery of all the Spaniards had lost in Flanders either by a Peace or a War The Province of Utrecht was for this Resolution but the Pensioner and the other six Provinces were for accepting the Offer of the Alternative made by France and obliging Spain to make their Choice as well as France to stand by their own Proposal Upon these Terms the Triple Allyance was concluded but with different Views both of Holland and of Spain The truth is Holland was unwilling to break off their antient Amity with France and embark in a War with the Conjunction of such an old Enemy as Spain and such a new Friend as England They reckoned on a Peace upon one of the Alternatives and were sollicitous only to preserve Flanders as a Frontier for Holland against France without considering the Interests of Spain further than as they appeared to be their own They reckoned certainly upon Spain's chusing to part with Burgundy Cambray c. which lay far from Holland and recovering the Towns they had lost in Flanders by which their Country would be left defensible at least with the Assistances of England and Holland On the other side Spain though they profess'd the greatest sense that could be of what they owed His Majesty upon the late generous Advances he had made in their Favour yet they were enraged at Holland for seconding so ill His Majesty's Resolutions and turning it upon the Choice only of an Alternative by which the Spaniards were to lose so great Territories and part with their Right to them instead of recovering the Possession they had yet only lost They took it as the greatest Indignity in the World that Holland should pretend to oblige the Crown of Spain to accept the very Conditions of France after an Invasion so unjust as they esteemed this last They were at first upon the thoughts of parting with all they had in the Low-Countries to France upon some Equivalent on the side of Spain and thereby both end the Charge of keeping Flanders and be revenged upon the Dutch by leaving them open and exposed to the Neighbourhood of France The Marquis once assured me that most of the Council of Spain were for making this desparate Peace and that for his own part he was inclin'd to it though more out of spight to the Dutch than what he thought was the true Interest of Spain After some Pause this heat of the Spaniards began to cool They saw the Spanish Crown by parting with Flanders must abandon all Commerce with the Princes and States on this side that Country and that upon a new War with France about the Succession they should have no way left of diverting the French Forces from falling upon Spain it self And so with much ado they resolved to accept the Alternative but left the Choice to the Marquis here as best inlightned in all the Interests of Flanders as well as the Dispositions of their Neighbours The Marquis hated the Peace upon either of the Alternatives and desired nothing but the continuance of the War with the Assistance of England and Holland to which he saw His Majesty inclinable and thought the States would be induced to rather than venture an Agreement between Spain and France for the Exchange of Flanders He thought that if they yielded Burgundy and the remote Frontiers Holland would be secure and France would perhaps be contented to let the Peace rest upon those Terms during the King of Spain's tender Life But if he yielded all the late conquered Towns to France Holland would be in perpetual Allarm for the Danger of the rest England would be likewise the more concerned and both being obliged to be continually armed to prevent the Danger or Flanders would find it their Interest rather to enter into such a War as might end in a safer Peace than by a patcht Peace to lie always in danger of a new War whenever France should be in a Condition of carrying the rest of Flanders by any sudden Invasion or by any Disconcert of Councils or Interests between Us and Holland Besides the Marquis imagines that France will either endeavour to avoid the Peace now offered or if they conclude it for the present that being possess'd of the Frontiers of Flanders they will not long resist the Temptation of carrying the rest being in a manner but open Country and thereby engage both Us and Holland to assist Spain with all our Forces which he thinks must make the War prosperous or a Peace secure So that upon the whole the Marquis has chosen this Alternative not from any desire of making the Peace at present but only in the view either of carrying on the present War or of making another with the Strength of his Neighbours Your Lordship may easily judge how much the Dutch are like to be disappointed and offended with the Spaniards for this Choice So that I cannot pretend to guess what is like to become of a Peace which both France and Spain come to so unwillingly and which England and Holland promote upon Conditions which they both dislike And so I leave this perplexed Affair and ask your Lordship's Pardon for this long Deduction which I should not have troubled your Lordship or my self with but that I thought you would come to know the true Springs of it no other way And which I could not have known if the Marquis were not a very warm Talker and sometimes further than he intended I am ever c. To Monsieur de Witt. Brussels Mar. 25. S. N. 1668. SIR BY Monsieur Van Beuninghen's dispatches of the 21st you will have known the Answer of the French Court upon the Truce we desired which in my opinion seems to make the War inevitable and that all the Appearances France has made of desiring a Peace are levelled at no other Mark but to slacken
always inclin'd to Some of his Acquaintance say that extream Vanity was a Cause of his Madness as well as it is an Effect All Persons of Note hereabouts are going to their Winter-Quarters at London The Burning of the City begins to be talk'd of as a Story like that of the Burning of Troy At Sheen we are like to be bare Lady Luddal seems uncertain in her Stay and we hear that when Sir James Sheen and his Lady were ready to come from Ireland great Cramps took my Lady in her Limbs And Sir James's Servants doubt whether we shall see him this Winter I desire Sir your Leave to kiss my Lady Temple's Hands and my Lady Giffard's Hands by your Letter My Daughter and I were in dispute which of us two should write this time to Brussels and because I was judged to have more Leisure it fell to me and my Lady Temple is to have the next from her I wish you Sir all good Successes in your Businesses and am Your very affectionate Servant LISLE From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Septemb. 27. 1667. SIR THIS begs your Pardon for my not writing by the last Post and presents you my humble Thanks for that Letter I should then have acknowledged and another of September 7. S. N. which with many Advices very considerable and desirable to be known gives me one particular Satisfaction to hear that one Copy of the Treaty is in so certain a Way of getting home There are two more gone by Sea one from Cales August 2d S. N. the other express by a Vessel from Rigo in Gallicia August 31 S. N. designed to set a Gentleman of my Company a-shore in Ireland on the South Part which Course I directed as a certain Way to avoid the Danger of the Sea and no very tedious Way of Passage I suppose all these likely to arrive in England much about a time This Place affords not much considerable News to return you Our Portugal Adjustment keeps the Pace of the accustomed Spanish Gravity if it proceed forward at all They have here removed the President of the Hazienda or as they call it â—â—bilar'd him giving him his Salary still of 6000 Ducats per annum for his own Life his Wife 's and his eldest Son 's and also have given him some other considerable Mercedes And have made Don Lopez de los Rios President de Hazienda in his Room This last is Castillo's near Kinsman and Creature the other a near Kinsman of the Duke of Medina's de las Torres The Conde de Fwensalida is lately dead a Grandee of Spain my chief Business here is a longing Expectation to hear of the Treaty I have made here to be received in England which now I daily shall hope for and as any thing thence or here occurs worth your Notice it shall be presented you by SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Sandwich From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Dec. 1â— 2â— 1667. SIR I Hope from your Goodness to find Pardon for missing the other Posts but dare not adventure your Patience to fail this also though I am now hurried by Business so that I have not time so largely and considerately to write as I desire Be pleased then to know that Mr. Godolphin's Journey to Portugal suffered so much Delay until it was found necessary that I must go in Person thither and then he resolved to make use of the King my Master's Leave to return into England and began his Journey for Bilboa on Tuesday Morning last You know the Value of Mr. Godolphin so well that it is needless to tell you my Griefs in parting from one of the most accomplisht worthy and generous Friends that ever I met with And I am heartily ' glad that your Friendship and mine do also Convenire in aliquo tertio My Journey for Portugal hath almost met with as many or more Calms than Mr. Godolphin's and in good earnest I am not able to give you any Light whether it be likely to proceed or not The Spaniards have reformed two Regiments of Germans at Badajos very good Officers they say and are resolved never to serve the Spaniard more The King of Spain has had the Small-Pox but is so recovered as they fear no Danger In Portugal Don Pedro is made Governour to assist his Brother in the same Nature as his Mother did when she was Regent And the Addresses are made in the same manner The Queen is returned to a Convent asserting her self to be a Maid and the King has under his Hand and Oath delivered the same So the Queen pursues the Cause among the Church-men to have the Marriage declared null There are Cortes to be called there January 1. S. N. On the 7th Instant S. N. the Marquis of Sande the Embassador that brought the Queen was shot and kill'd in the Street with a Carabine and no body knows who did it I wish you a very merry Christmas and am most affectionately SIR Your most faithful and most humble Servant Sandwich Postscript IF I go to Portugal pray continue our Correspondence to Mr. John Werden a Gentleman worthy of your Favour and very able and securely my Friend who does me the Favour to continue in my House and manages the King's Business in this Court in my Absence and will send me your Letters From Monsieur Gourville Luneburg Jan. 28. 1668. SIR BY a Copy of the Letter written from the King of England to the States I understand you are a peaceable Man And the Memorial you have given to desire Commissioners in order to examine jointly with you into the Means for a good Peace makes us believe that you desire in good earnest to give Repose to Christendom You know how I have always desired it but however it will be the more agreeable to see it done by your Hands In good earnest I am glad the King of England has made choice of you for so great and important an Affair When his Majesty knows your Merit I assure my self you will be always in the greatest Employments and I assure you that I shall always be making Wishes for your Advancement till I see you made Chancellour of England In the mean time I shall be ever SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant Gourville P. S. IF you have a Desire to make the Peace I look upon it as very far advanced The Princes here shew their Desire of it I did not think to stay in this Country above 8 or 10 Days yet here I am after four Months Pray let me know whether you think the Assembly will be at Aix and near what time that I may keep my Lodgings there and if you will tell me in Confidence the Opinion you have of the Peace I shall be obliged to you Mine is that you may make it if you please but I am not yet convinc'd whether you can hinder it if Monsieur de Wit has so much Desire to make it as many People believe
fait croire le premier et si on ne veut point de moy en France je m'en vay prendre mon party pour le reste de mes jours Je ne doute point que l'on ne me laisse faire un tour á Paris pour voir si je pourrois m'accommoder mais je crains que l'on ne me fasse des difficultez insupportables Je vous supplie de me croire toujours Monsieur Vtôtre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Gourville Je pourray peut être vous voir á la Haye plûtot que vous ne pensez From Monsieur de Wit Hague Feb. 25. 1668. SIR THE Bearer hereof delivered me the Letter you did me the Honour to write to me from Antwerp of the 24th Instant wherein I behold with Pleasure your Zeal and Diligence for the Advancement of our common Affair as also the good Dipositions that your Offices have already raised in the Mind of the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo and the Appearance of a more satisfactory Declaration we shall receive upon the common Request to be made him from the K. of Great Britain and this State I delayed not to communicate and deliberate the Contents of the said Letter with the States Commissioners deputed upon the Subject of our last Negotiations and we hope you will judge as we do that it is absolutely necessary for his Excellence to declare himself without further Delay or Reserve agreeably to what his concluded between England and this State without desiring before-hand any Concert more particular than that which is made signed and ratified between us and our Masters For since the King of France has seen by his last Conquests how weak and negligent the Spaniards are 't is to be feared that if the Marquis lets the Month of March expire without plainly declaring himself as we desire the King of France may be very glad after the Expiration of the said Term not to be oblig'd by virtue of his Word given to make the Peace upon the Alternative but may make use of the Time and Disorder of the Spaniards to surprize Luxenburg and a great part of what remains to the King of Spain in the Netherlands and to order his Affairs afterwards as Occurrences shall happen The States General are oblig'd and entirely resolv'd in case of Refusal from the King of France or any Evasions from that side after it has been insinuated to him that the Marquis has accepted either part of the Alternative to execute in the most vigorous manner possible what is contained in our third separate Article and by consequence jointly with England to break into open War against France to act in concert not only for Defence of the Netherlands but also and above all to attack and infest France by Sea by Descents Invasions into the Country and all other Ways But because it must be presupposed in publick that the King of France after having given his Word to the States and afterwards by a circular Letter not only to the King of Great Britain and the said States but also to many Princes of Germany will not break a Promise so solemnly made we cannot by any means enter into Concert and League with Spain before this Case effectually arrives And we think that such a League and Concert made before the Season would be likely indeed to produce the Effect the Marquis desires but which is far from his Majesty of England's Aim or that of the States for you cannot but know that his Excellence would prefer the Continuance of the War with our Assistance to the Conclusion of the Peace upon the Alternative and his Majesty as well as the States prefers this Peace before the Continuance of a War whereof they must bear all the Costs and all the Profit be to the King of Spain Now we comprehend very well that such a Concert and such a League as his Excellence desires would put the King of Erance upon an absolute necessity of continuing the War because if he should comply after such a League made with his Enemies it would appear publickly that he was obliged to it by this Bond and consequently by his Enemies themselves And therefore the Matter is judiciously enough propos'd by his Excellence for arriving at his End but since it would make us miss of ours we hope you will put the Marquis off it and make him quit all Hopes of engaging us by the force of his great Genius to enter of our own accord where we have no mind to come but upon a fatal Necessity I think his Excellence does wrong to the King of Great Britain and the States in not trusting their Affection and their Honour which are concerned as well as their Interest after the Alliance and the Peace they have already made together but if after his Excellence has accepted our Propositions the King of France shall happen to draw back or seek Evasions then the King of Great Britain and the States General entring into the Party and even into a Rupture with France it will be very just and proper to concert with his Excellency after what manner to act in the Territory of the King his Master and yet in the mean while not omit entring into Action without the least loss of time Therefore it will be no way necessary for me to be upon our Frontiers towards the End propos'd by his Excellence which besides will be wholly impossible for me much less to send any body from hence to Brussels since the States Deputies who are there at present are the same we should chuse for the End desired For I assure you I can name no body in whom the States as well as I in particular can have greater Confidence whereof I do not doubt but they will give you Proofs as well as of their Sincerity and good Conduct I desire you therefore Sir to use them with as much Freedom as me and I will engage they shall do the same by you And if you have been at all satisfied with my manner of transacting as I have been extremely with yours that you will be also satisfied with that of the said Deputies For the rest we approve extremely the Diligence you make on all sides in sending to the Ministers of the King of England and the States now at Paris And from your common Offices we promise to our selves an Universal Peace in Christendom to the great Advantage of the Publick and the Eternal Glory of your selves which no Man desires more than he who is SIR Your most humble and most affectionate Servant de Wit A Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 25me Fevr. 1668. Monsieur LE porteur de cellecy m'a bien delivré la Lettre qui vous a plû me faire l'honneur de m'ecrire d'Anvers le 24me de ce mois et j'y ay veu avec agrément le zele et la diligence que vous avez apporté pour l'avancement de nôtre affaire commune
April and the 15th of May the strained Exceptions against the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo's Powers and his Acceptation of the Alternative As chiefly for what regards the Forces to be rais'd with all possible readiness and the manner by which we ought to proceed to the Defence of the Netherlands as soon as the K. of France shall begin to move against them The States are every Day more confirmed in the same Sentiments as their Actions declare by marching an Army with all Diligence to Berg-opzoom and by sending an Express to the King of Great Britain with Intelligence that they are of Opinion that in order to satisfie the K. of France upon the Scruples propos'd in Monsieur de Lionne's Paper of the 19th Instant with Promises and Assurances sufficient we must let him know discreetly and yet positively that we think his Generosity will not suffer him to ruine a State or a Minister of Spain whom the King of England and the States General have obliged at his Request to accept the Conditions prescrib'd with a formal Assurance that by that means he should free himself from all Danger of the War And at least that the Honour and good Faith of the King of Great Britain and the States cannot suffer such a State or Minister to be injured without lending him their Service and Assistance And by every body's Disposition here I am assured that as soon as the Agreement is concluded we shall march to the Assistance of the Netherlands upon the first Step France shall make to attack them if the King of England will do the like But to acquit our Consciences and let the World see the Justice of our proceeding I am entirely of opinion we must make all Advances and give all due Assurances to France to oblige them to the Peace Upon which with many other Particulars I refer you to the Deputies of the States to communicate to you having not time at present to enlarge further but only to repeat in one word that I am truly Sir Your c. Johan de Wit De Monsieur de Wit A la Haye 25 me Mars 1668. Monsieur J'AY bien receu la lettre dont il vous a plù m'honnorer le 25me de ce mois surquoy je vous diray en peu de mots que je suis tout á fait de vôtre opinion tant á l'egard de la disposition du Roy de France á continuer la guerre l'insuffisance de l'offre de vouloir restituer tout ce qu'il pourroit coâ—querir entre le premier d'Avril et le 15me May les exceptions recherchées contre les pouvoirs du Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo et contre son acceptation de l'alternative que principalement et sur tout á l'egard de l'armement que l'on devroit avancer avec toute la promptitude possible et de la maniere de laquelle on devra accourir á la defence du Pais bas des que le Roy de France commencera á se remuer pour l'accabler Lés Etats ont dêja approuvé et confirmé encore de jour en jour les mémes sentiments par leurs actions faisants marcher en toute diligence une armée aux environs de Berg-opzoom et ayants envoyé leur avis par un exprez au Roy de la Grande Bretagne qu'ils sont d'opinion qu' aussi bien que de satisfaire au Roy de France sur les scrupules proposés dans l'ecrit du Sieur de Lionne du 19me de ce mois avec des asseurances et promesses suffisantes il faudra luy faire savoir discretement et neantmois bien positivement que nous jugeons que sa generosité ne pourra pas permettre qu'il accable un Etat ou un Ministre d'Espagne que le Roy d'Angleterre et les Etats Generaux ont obligé á sa requisition d'accepter les conditions prescrites avec une asseurance formelle que par lá il se deliverroit de tout danger de la guerre Et qu'au moins l'honneur et la bonne foy du Roy de la Grande Bretagne et des Etats ne pourra pas souffrir qu'on accable un tel Etat ou un tel Ministre sans luy prêter leurs services et assistances Et je ne vois point de disposition icy qui ne m'asseure que l'oppignoration estant conclue on marchera au secours des Pais bas dés la premiere demarche que le Roy de France fera pour l'attaquer si le Roy de la Grande Bretagne en veut faire autant Mais pour nous satisfaire en bonne conscience et pour faire voir á tout le monde la justice de nôtre procede Je suis entierement d'opinion qu'il faudra faire toutes les avances et donner toutes les asseurances requises á la France pour parvenir et pour l'obliger á la paix Surquoy comme aussi sur plusieurs autres particularitez je me remets á ce que les Deputez de l'Etat vous communiqueront plus en detail n'ayant pas de tems de m'etendre icy plus amplement mais seulement pour repeter en un mot que je suis tres veritablement Monsieur Votre c. Johan de Wit From Monsieur de Wit Hague April 4. 1668. SIR I Could not immediately answer yours of the 2d Instant by reason of a Feaver I got by a great Cold last Night But towards Noon the Feaver lessening gives me leave at present to tell you that though it is now some Days since M. Beverning's Departure for Aix la Chapelle yet I do not see how in the present Conjuncture of Affairs it shou'd be more necessary for you to reside in that City than at Brussels but on the contrary that the Affair is now reduc'd to such a Point that the Business which carried you to Aix ought to be treated and finish'd in a few days in the Place where you are and in the Netherlands and I think the King of England's Ministers and those of the States at Paris have negotiated with Address in procuring us an Instrument which in a few Days will put us in a clear Light upon what we are finally to resolve and to do if the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo seconds us as we hope and expect from his Prudence and from the visible Interest of his Master which obliges him to it I speak of the Project of the Treaty drawn upon the Foot of the Alternative and concerted between the said Ministers of our Masters at Paris and the Commissioners of the K. of France whereof I am sure you have receiv'd a Copy from Sir John Trevor I think this Project gives us a certain way of obtaining the Peace or else a War wherein all the Princes and States of Christendom will support us or at least commend our Conduct and Proceeding And I think we must proceed in it after this manner I suppose before-hand that
and their Pretensions in the same Condition they were before The same Liberty still remaining upon the last Article of the Marine Treaty to appoint Commissioners and alter or add any Thing when both Parties shall agree and will be but like taking so much by Advance upon Account of a greater Debt So that I am apt to conclude from all these Observations That they who influence our Merchants in this Prosecution either have no meaning this Treaty should end fairly and so they put it obstinately upon that single Point and in that Form which they know will never be granted or else they aim at gaining an Occasion of raising new Disputes with the Dutch whenever they find a Conjuncture for it there seeming some Reason for the Dutch Opinion that agreeing upon an Article as ours propose it we may fall into new Contests upon the Extent and Interpretation of it whenever we please If this last End be in the Bottom of this Business and it be taken up or countenanced by his Majesty or his Ministers upon Reason of State and we make our Provisions and take all our Measures accordingly for ought I know it is a wise and may prove an honourable Council in Time at least if the present State of Affairs in Christendom should change by any sudden or unexpected Revolution But if our Merchants or those who influence them in this Matter mean no such Thing as a Conclusion of the Treaty but only by the depending of such Disputes to leave an Unkindness and Weakness in our Alliance which may in time shake the Foundations of it and make way for new Measures on one Side or other which will in time prove destructive to both I cannot but interpret this as the Effect of their Distast or Envy at the King 's present Ministry and the Course of his Councils which have not gained greater Honour abroad nor perhaps Safety and good Will at home by any Thing than by our late Alliances so renowned here and thereby the Stop we have given to the Progress of the French Greatness And therefore it must come from the Influence of some who would be glad to see not only our Alliance shaken or changed abroad but our Ministry at home too which I shall be sorry to see till the King can find better Hands for himself and the Kingdom to place it in And whenever that happens as much as I am your Lordship's Servant I shall be very well contented and so I dare say will you too If your Lordship should imagine any particular Envy or Peek at me or my Employment here may have contributed to the Difficulties which have succeeded in this Business and that our Merchants or those that influence them believe it would thrive better in any other Hand I will beg of you not to be sway'd by Considerations of Kindness to me in a Matter of publick Concernment nor to fear that whenever this Employment falls you shall be troubled with me at home as great Ministers use to be with Men out of Office For while the King's Business goes well 't is not two Straws matter whether such a Body as I have any Share in it or no. And there 's an end of all the Reflections I have had upon the most troublesome and untoward Business that I thank God I ever had in my Life or I hope shall ever have again And perhaps I am mistaken in them all However if your Lordship can pardon this you shall be sure not to be troubled in haste with any more of it from My Lord your c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Aug. 7. S. N. 1669. My LORD I Was very glad to find your Lordship in your last upon your Journey into the Country because I very much doubt whether the Exercise or Diversions you usually allow your self are what your Health requires and what your Cares and Troubles deserve I am sure in the Prospect I have of them I am so far from envying them with all their gay Circumstances that I think your Lordship has a very hard Bargain of them altogether unless it be one Day made up to you by the Glory and Satisfaction of some great Success in the Pursuit you intend of his Majesty's and the Kingdoms Honour Safety and Happiness which I doubt will need some stronger Councils than Men seem at present disposed to But this is none of my Business I cannot give your Lordship any Account of what you say is made a great Matter of by Somebody to a private Hand about the Difficulties intended by Spain in the two last Suedish Payments with Design of making new Demands I am only in Pain at present to see the first Payment finished which is not yet arrived but expected by the first Courier When that is done and the Guaranty delivered by Sueden as well as us and Holland I shall be in no great Fear besides that of the Spanish King's Death or of Spain falling into some Agreement or other with France for the Exchange of Flanders by seeing so great a War still entailed upon it and their Neighbours unwilling to share so far in their Dangers as perhaps it were Our and the Dutch Interest to do I am sure in the present Posture of that Monarchy if I were of their Council I should be of Advice to do it whenever France would be content upon it to quit all Pretence to the rest of the Spanish Dominions And perhaps 't were wise for France to get Flanders by that or any other quiet Condition For within two Years after he were well possess'd of that little Spot of Ground I doubt no Prince or State in Christendom would pretend to dispute any more with him then than the Spaniard does now But these are Events to be considered by Men in greater Spheres than I am and perhaps deserve to be a little more thought on than they are I have received and returned a Visit with the French Ambassador so that we are upon as good Terms as can be My Lord Culpepper pass'd this way last Week and upon that Occasion I cannot but desire your Lordship to let me know more particularly from you how I am to treat any English Lord as to the Hand and Door in my own House For though the French Example is given me as to all publick Ministers yet there is nothing specified as to other Persons and if I am to follow it in this and other Particulars I desire to have something from his Majesty's positive Commands to bear me out as the French Ambassadors have and as methinks the Case deserves Since I am told the Innovation began in Monsieur Cominges's Time in England and that before the Orders he received in it he gave the Hand to all Gentlemen of Quality in England and to all Persons of great Quality or Families though of his own Nation And that my Lord St. Albans ever gave it to all English Lords while he was Ambassador at Paris Though it seems
my Lord Hollis changed it upon the French Ambassador doing so in England I know not what my Father said to your Lordship concerning the Trifle you mention in the End of your Letter And am sure you might very well have spared your self the Trouble of taking Notice of it as I may do of giving your Lordship any further Assurances of what will never fail you which is the hearty Passion and Truth wherewith I am and ever shall be My Lord Your Lordship's c. To Sir Charles Wolsely Hague Aug. 10. S. N. 1669. SIR I Received some Time since the Favour of a Letter from you of May 9th but hearing by your Son that you had soon after left the Town and finding how ill Fortune one of mine had met with in lying five or six Months before it came to your Hands I omitted the acknowledging yours till I might presume on finding you sooner by my Father's Conveyance to whose Care I have committed this upon Information of his Journy by your House into Ireland Were it not for acquitting my Debt and assuring you of your Son's Health and Welcom here while it may be any Ease to you or Improvement to him I should have little to bear me out in giving you this Trouble For the Return of your Compliments would but multiply them between us And that is a sort of Exercise in which I am soon out of Breath as having but a small Stock of those more refined Imaginations which are required to make up any great Abilities in that kind Therefore I shall end an empty ill Letter as soon as I can but not without the Professions of my being SIR Your most humble Servant To the Spanish Ambassador Hague Aug. 13. S. N. 1669. My Lord I Was in hopes the Affair now under Debate could have met with no Reply to what I writ yesterday to your Excellency But having observed the contrary by yours of this Evening I am obliged to say that I thought upon our last Conference I had left your Excellency entirely persuaded that the Constable was in the wrong to raise a Difficulty about the first Payment upon the Concert proposed because there was no mention of it in the Act signed by your Excellency I shall say further that you have reason at present if in that Act you shall find either expressed or implied these Words of the Guaranty Y los Instrumentos necessarios dependientes de ella If these Words are not there the Party contracting cannot bring them in by any Interpretation of his own without Consent of t'other Party or Sentence of some Arbitrator Besides that this of the Concert does not absolutely or of necessity import any thing to the Security of the Guaranty For provided we execute it as the Wants of Spain require it is of no Importance whether it be done with such or such a number of Troops either of one or t'other Nation since that iâ— to be concerted according to the different Interests or Conveniences of each Party And it may happen that the Attack from France may be so powerful that it will be necessary for each of us to assist you with all the Forces we can raise or equip according to the general Guaranty and not according to any Concert of Forces specified in the Treaty I do not accuse Spain of any want of Sincerity in all this Affair but only of Readiness and Freeness to consent to and accomplish what was absolutely necessary for engaging Sueden in the preservation of the Peace And on t'other side your Excellency cannot accuse the Sincerity of the King my Master who at the lowest of your Affairs and when Flanders was desperate gave the first helping Hand when the Princes nearest allied to the Crown of Spain would have nothing to do in it contracted his Alliances last Winter set a Fleet to Sea the Summer following sent Ambassadors to Aix la Chapelle founded the Triple Alliance and sollicited other Princes to join in it And all this only to begin and procure a Peace where neither his Dominions nor People were concerned nor with permission of great Reasoners had any Prospect of fuâ—â—re Dangers but what would concern the Empire and all the rest of Christendom before his Majesty or his Kingdoms could be exposed to it For what your Excellency desires to know why Monsieur Marechal having said there would be no Difficulty in concluding and ratifying the Concert there should notwithstanding prove to be any in doing it at present I will tell you That the two Ministers of Sueden in all that has passed between us have not only said but still persist that they were ready to enter into the said Concert and intended to do so before Monsieur Marechal goes from hence upon which however he is extreamly pressed but that they never intended to enter into it before the Payment of the first Subsidies which ought to have been made upon the mutual Delivery of the Ratification saying withal that they would never allow that this Mony ought to pass for Payment of the particular Aids they were to give Spain by virtue of the Triple Alliance I have always found them so stiff upon that Point that I have been a long time in despair of overcoming their Nicety It remains therefore to Spain to consider whether the Guaranty of three such Powers be worth giving this little Satisfaction to Sueden and whether it would not be more to the purpose when the second Term expires to press us then upon the Concert if you shall not see it finished But by all means to procure as soon as possible that the general Guaranty be put into your Hands And I do not doubt but according to the Dispositions I see on all sides that the Concert will quickly follow though your Excellency should no more concern your self with urging us to what we are drawn by the Interest of every particular Party as well as the Publick I wish your Excellency Health and Happiness and am c. A l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne De la Haye le 13 Aout S. N. 1669. Monsieur J'Avois esperé que l'affaire dont il s'agit á present ne trouveroit plus d'obstacles qu'il n'y auroit point dâ—â—â—peique á ce que â—â—câ—rivis hier á V. E. Mais comme j ay vû le contraire par avotre Lettre ecrite le Sâ—ir même je me crois obligé de dire qu'il m'avoit paru que le fruit de notre derniere conference avoit eté de laisser V. E. pleinement persuadée que le Connetable de Castille avoit tort de susciter une difficulté touchaâ—â— le premier payement suâ— le Concert proposé puisqu'il n'en est point fait mention dans l'acte signé par V. E. J'ajouteray á cela que vous auriez aujourdâ—â—y raison si dans cet Acte vous trouviez on exprimé ou sousentendu les mots de Guarentie Y los instrumentos necessarios dependientes de
ella Si pareils mots n'y sont pas un des partis contractans ne peut pas les y faire entrer par une interpretation de sa façon á moins que le consentement de l'autre parti intervienne ou que de part d'autre on convienne de s'en rapporter á la decision d'un arbitre Sans conter que celuy de Concert luy même n'importe point absolument ni necessairement á la secureté de la Guarantie Car pourvû que nous l'executions selon le besoin des affaires d'Espagne il importer a peu qu'avec un tel ou un tel nombre de troupes ou que ces troupes appartiennent á une de deux Nations plutôt qu' á l'autre car si l'on doit agir de concert c'est selon les divers interêts les differentes commoditez de chacune des Parties Et meme il peut arriver que les invasions les attacques de la France seroient si redoutables qu'il sera necessaire que chacun de nous rassemble tout ce qu'il peut de forces sur pied ayant egard á l'intention de la Guarantie en general non á quelques cas particuliers specifiés dans le traité Je n'accuse pas l'Espagne d'avoir manqué de sincerité dans tout le cours de cette affaire mais d'avoir manque de promptitude franchise á accomplir ce qui leur etoit absolument necessaire pour engager la Suede dans la conservation de la Paix sur cela je diray aussi a V. E. qu'elle ne peut pas accuser la sincerité du Roy mon Maitre lors qu l'etat de vos affaires etoit le plus deploré que tous les Pais bas etoient comme an desespoir il a le premier mis la main á l'ouvrage quand les Princes les plus proches de la Couronne d'Espagne n'y vouloient pas toucher tout l'hyver dernier sa Majesté a employé á faire traiter ses Alliances á faire equiper une flote qui a paru en mer L'eté suivante il a envoyé ses Ambassadeurs á Aix la Chapelle il a cementé la Triple Alliance fait solliciter divers Princes de s'y joindre en plus grand nombre Tout cela dans la vâ—â—e d'acheminer de procurer une paix qui ne â—endoit rien á ses Etats ni á ses Peuples puisque les uns les autres etoient á couvert des ravages de la guerre Car malgré tout ce qu'il plait aux grands discoureurs d'insinuer de publier les dangers qui menacent l'Angleterre que la Politique a du prevoir ces dangers regardoient l'Empire en particulier toute la Chretienté en general de plus prés que sa Majesté ses Royaumes V. E. demande pourquoy Monsieur Marechal ayant dit qu'il n'y auroit aucune difficulté á conclure á ratifier le Concert il s'y en trouve pourtant aujourdhuy Je vous diray sur cela que les deux Ministres de Suede sur tous les points discutez entre eux nous non seulement nous ont dit mais ils persistent toujours á dire qu'ils etoient prets á entrer dans le dit Concert qu'ils avoient meme pretendu le faire avant le depart de Monsieur Marechal quelque pressé qu'il paroisse que leur pensée n'a jamais eté d'attendre á faire cette demarche que le payement des premiers subsides fixé au tems que l'echange de la Ratification seroit delivrée Ils ajoutent á cela qu'ils ne consentiront jamais que cet argent puisse passer pour le prix la recompense qu'ils s'engageroit de donner á l'Espagne en vertu de la Triple Alliance Je les ay trouvé si roids sur cet Article que j'ay desesperé il y a long tems de vaincre leur delicatesse Il reste donc pour l'Espagne á examiner á bien peser si la Guarantie de trois Puissances telles que celles qui se presentent ne vaut pas bien qu'on cede á la Suede la legere Satisfaction qu'elle demande Je voudrois que l'Espagne confiderât s'il ne seroit pas plus á propos d'attendre á nous presser sur le Concert que le terme du second payement fût echeu Si tout n'etoit entierement conclu mais en tout cas de procurer au plutôt que la Guarantie generale vous soit mise en mains Je ne doute pas veu les dispositions ou je trouve tous les Esprits que le Concert ne suivît immediatement sans que V. E. ait la peine de nous presser d'advantage En cette rencontre notre propre interêt se trouve joint á celuy du publique Je sachaite á V. E. la santé la prosperité qu'elle desire suis c. To the Spanish Ambassador Hague Aug. 14. S. N. 1669. My Lord I Received your Excellency's Letter last night as I was making my Dispatches for England in which I immediately inclosed it that the King my Master may see in what this Affair has ended For the Complaints your Excellency is pleased to make of me as having hindred instead of advancing an Agreement so much desired I shall not defend my self with Words if my Actions have not done it nor think my self obliged whatever has passed in this Affair to give account of it to any Body but the King my Master I am not the first Minister whose Services to Spain have had no Returns but of Reproach and Ingratitude which I shall not lay to Heart since our part is only to obey However I cannot but think it had been more Prudence in the Spanish Ministers to acknowledge all the King my Master has treated and done for 18 Months past in favour of that Crown than to accuse his Majesty upon every Occasion either to have done nothing or only what he found convenient to himself Since the true way of engaging a generous Mind in new Obligations is to be thankful for the old and rather encrease than lessen what a King and a Friend has done at least with so much desire of succeeding well Since your Excellency is pleased to give so wrong a Turn to what I writ with so good Intentions I will say nothing to excuse it but still repeat what I said before That to me it seems more reasonable that you should press the Suedish Ministers upon this Agreement if you think the time of the second Subsidies not yet run out Because 't is plain that the first Payment by your own Act was to be made upon the signing the Ratifications of the Guaranty without any other Condition and there being three distinct Acts from the three Parties your Excellency
they are and for ought I see all Businesses depend upon the Qualities of the Men that manage them which considering the ill Success of this is all I shall say in Answer of your Compliment to me That 't is in very good Hands I gave you an Account in my last of the bold Advance the Dutch had made to the Constable of signing their Part of their Concert alone immediately upon the Payment of the two hundred thousand Crowns We expect every Day the Answer of this Proposition and finding one Clause of my Instructions to command the suppressing them in case I find either before or after their Arrival that the Mony would be paid according to the Treaty of May last I thought it agreeable to what I conceive of his Majesty's Intentions for me to take no Notice of them till I see what this Return from the Constable will produce and in case it be followed by the Payment of the Mony to expect his Majesty's further Orders before I proceed upon them If the Constable still insist to have the Concert jointly signed I shall then fall into the Consideration of it with the Suedes and Dutch Ministers and endeavour to bring it to an Issue according to his Majesty's Instructions but so as not to prostitute our Offer till we have Assurance that no more Difficulties will be made by Spain nor any Changes desired in that Concert which has so long been framed and in which I have not observed the least Inclination in any of the Ministers here to admit of any Alterations I suppose it is not his Majesty's Intention I should consent to the Concert but in Conjunction with the Suede as well as the Dutch in case the first should not be induced to it or raise new Difficulties and according to this Apprehension I shall proceed In all which Points I am more distinct that you may find whether I understand his Majesty's Meaning right and may please accordingly to inform and direct me For the Paces as they are much more difficult so they ought to be much more cautious in a Minister when his Instructions are numerous and particular as mine are grown in this Affair And you may be very confident when they are once given they shall be punctually observed to the best that I can understand them And in that it self I thank God I have not yet failed and desire nothing of my Master and my Friends more than that I may be the first to hear of it when I do I did enclose the last Memorial I sent the States upon the Business of Surinam and spoke with Monsieur Van Beuninghen since my last upon it He protests that for his Part he is of Opinion and so are most of his Province to give us just what we ask in that Matter but that we must excuse the Delays of their Constitution when the Dissent of one Province makes the Resolutions of all the other lame He confess'd that though Zealand had consented to what I mentioned in two of my late Letters yet they had ordered their Deputies to delay the Conclusion of it for a while so as they had been forced to write once more to convince them of the Necessity which Holland thought there was to dispatch it speedily as well as effectually And he hoped for a sudden and good Answer from them The Ministers here have been earnest with me to propose to his Majesty to go the same or equal Pace with them in laying Impositions upon the French Commodities which they think would prove the greatest Parsimony that either of us could use and be a greater Blow to France than Armies could give And they say in case his Majesty should resolve upon it they would go as far as he pleased in it whereas without that they must be something tenderer than they would be They would fain engage me likewise to propose to his Majesty their joining with us in equal Proportion of Ships and Men for the carrying on a War against Algiers But I suppose their End is That they may be comprehended likewise in a Peace with them which may perhaps be our furthest Aim And so I tell them this might have been a welcom Proposal when we began to set out our Fleet but can signify little now the Action seems near an end However that such Things are fitter to be proposed by their own Ambassador in England than by me And I mention them that you may be prepared in case he receive Instructions to propose them there I am always as becomes me c. To Sir John Trevor Hague Dec. 13. S. N. 1669. SIR THOUGH I had Liberty given me by your last of the 2d past to make use of my late Instructions as soon as I pleased the Constable's positive Answer having satisfied you what we were to expect from thence Yet the Advance having since been made from the Dutch by the Offer I acquainted you with to the Constable I resolved still to pursue what I intended in my last in suppressing wholly this Instruction till I saw the Constable's Answer to the States Letter and what Hopes that would furnish us with of obtaining the Payment of the present Mony without engaging his Majesty in the Concert before his Measures were taken more fully with Spain Bat yesterday the Spanish Ambassador came to tell me That he had received a Letter from their Agent Fonseca which assures him that Orders were already sent me to sign the Concert and that his Majesty told him so at the same Time when he received News of Don Juan de Toledo's Death I told him the Authority was too too good to be disputed And therefore I confess'd I had received Orders to make a further Advance for the Satisfaction of Spain and the Confederates than his Majesty had yet thought fit to do or esteemed himself at all obliged to But I desired them to believe there was nothing to give them any the least Hopes of his Majesty's charging himself with any part of the Suedish Subsidies That if They and Sueden and Holland could agree upon that Point so as to dispose Sueden to sign the first Concert that was proposed at the same Time with the Guaranty His Majesty would go very far towards the Conclusion of the whole Matter But I assured him at the same Time That though I were agreed with Sueden and Holland to make him an Offer of the Concert yet we would not do any Thing towards it till he had Powers to consign the Mony immediately without any new Dispatches and Difficulties from Brussels I found the Spanish Ambassador had immediately upon Receipt of his Letters from England sent an Extract of them to Monsieur de Witt as the Baron d'Isola had done to Monsieur Applebome who were both in Pain till they knew the Truth from me and sent to me to that Purpose And knowing the Ambassador would be as diligent to inform the Constable as them and consequently influence any Answer not
already given to the Dutch Letter I resolved to go and talk with them both upon the Business and concert with them what Course to hold in the Progress of it I could not get a Time of speaking with Monsieur de Witt to day but did with Monsieur Applebome and much to the same Purpose as I had yesterday to the Spanish Ambassador but plainer and in more Confidence All I could get from him was That he would read over that first Concert to day and consider whether he could sign it That it was true Monsieur Marechal had offered to sign something like it but containing in the same Act the Security of their future Subsidies which they were to insist upon before they sign it I told him all the Difference would be that whereas they contented themselves before with Spain's Promise of one half to take it now for three Parts if the Spaniards would be persuaded to it and they had the same Security for one as for t'other which I knew they reckoned upon of not furnishing more Troops than in Proportion to the Mony they received He seemed a good deal unsatisfied that the Spanish Ambassador had received the Advice from England before the Answer was returned from the Constable For since we will make no Part of the Security for their future Subsidies I find they would very fain touch the two hundred thousand Crowns before they give the Concert which they might then sell dearer to Spain or at least make it the Price of their Satisfaction growing due by the two next Payments of the four hundred eighty thousand Crowns already due All ended between us with this Promise of acquainting me with his Resolution so soon as he had considered it and the Proposal of a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I find now the Want I always feared of Monsieur Marechal who is not to be retrieved so that we must make our best of what we have and do all we can to put him out of his Pace The Baron d'Isola came to me this Afternoon and his Business I found was to persuade me to sign Monsieur Marechal's Projects and thereby charge his Majesty with the fifteen thousand Crowns to Sueden but upon a Promise from the Constable of Spain supplying his Majesty with the Sums we should furnish upon that Engagement But I cut him off short in that and all other Expedients and told him if his Majesty were induced to sign the Concert as it was more than they had any Reason to expect from him so it was all they were to hope in this Matter and therefore I desired him to reckon upon it and take their Measures accordingly I suppose by what he said his Intentions are to go away for Brussels within a Day or two and bring us a positive Resolution of what we are to expect from thence as to the immediate Payment and their Promise to Sueden of three Parts of the future Subsidies But he will first endeavour to know Monsieur Applebome's mind who will at least be stiff in this that the Promise be made by Spain to the Confederates and not directly to Sueden Since my last the Lunenburg Envoy came to desire me that I would let his Majesty know how much his Masters esteemed themselves honoured by the Overtures his Majesty made them of entring into an Alliance of which he was the Head That thereupon they had ordered him to attend here ever since in hopes of some further Proposals towards the engaging them in it But that his Masters hearing no further from hence and finding that by the ill Posture of our Triple Alliance other Princes of Germany were seeking other Measures they had commanded him to return which he should do about three Weeks hence but first to endeavour by my Hand to give his Majesty the best Testimonies of their Affections to his Service and good Intentions towards the Ends he had so gloriously engaged in I promised him to perform the Message and employ'd the rest of my Discourse in convincing him how much more the Princes of Germany were concerned in the Defence of Flanders than his Majesty and that however if his Masters had any Expectations besides their own Interests towards engaging them they ought to be from Holland and not from Us since the most important Use of their Troops would be to awe the Bishop of Munster who might otherwise be able by the French Assistances to divert all or the greatest part of the Dutch Forces that way and thereby leave Flanders open to the French He confess'd both these Points and I promised to do him any good Offices I could towards the Dutch Ministers The Deputies of the States came this Day to me to assure me of their Desires and Resolutions to satisfie his Majesty in the Business of Surinam but that they could not yet come to a final Conclusion and therefore desired me to have Patience for a little longer time after which I might assure my self of a good End in it They pretended Monsieur de Witt 's and their chief Ministers being so much taken up at this time but upon Discourse confess'd the Zelanders Aim to have their next Ships arrive from Surinam Upon which I fell into some Heat with them and told them I would never send such a Message to his Majesty such Delays being fitter for Law-Suits than publick Negotiations At last concluded that because I would a little consider their Ministers being so much taken up at this Pinch about Levies and other Affairs agitating in the States of Holland I was content to stay six Days longer for their Resolution in this Matter upon Condition I should have it in that Time to his Majesty's Satisfaction To make short of a long Conference this they agreed to at last and I will hope may keep their Words since there was one of the Zeland Deputies among them The Task you give me in the End of your Letter is as you say a hard one for whatsoever is planted of that kind will not grow long or well but out of a good Root at home however I shall venture at it here all I can and dare undertake it shall not thrive worse in this than in other Neighbour Soils I am c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Dec. 24. S. N. 1669. My LORD THO' Monsieur Overkirk wants nothing to make him welcom every where but especially at the Hague yet I confess he was the more so to me by a Letter he brought me from your Lordship whereby I found my self to be not altogether forgotten where I desire most to be remembred and would deserve it if I could I am very sensible that the Right you say he has done me there may rather prove an ill Office than a good But however I am not the less obliged by his good meaning nor the more touched by their ill who are not content I should gain a little Esteem whilst I am content to gain nothing else and where
even in time of Peace and upon this Condition Sueden will be content I think what he promises is sufficient that is to bring into the Field the 16000 Men in three Months after the Attack for there is no Appearance of employing so great Forces unless by way of Diversion since the Troops to be furnish'd by his Majesty and the States General joined to those of the Catholick King will be as many as can be well employ'd for the Defence of Flanders for it is not designed they should be Masters of the Field Your Excellency sees that you may reckon if you please upon 10000 Men from the States in 15 days time and tho' there be no Term specified by the King my Master I think your Excellency need make no Difficulty upon it since the Words As soon as possible signify the shortest time one can desire And I confess that not having observed any Reflection upon the Time in the Orders of the Queen Regent of Spain which were communicated to us by the Ambassador Gamarra I gave no notice of it to his Majesty thinking my self sufficiently guarded by my Powers to sign the same Project which had been sent into England as well as Spain I hope that as soon as your Excellency will have sent Powers to the Spanish Ambassador to deliver the Mony there will be no Difficulty in signing the Project as it has been communicated to him And I do not think from what I can judge by the Minister of Sueden that the Affair is likely to suffer any further delays whereof I thought good to give your Excellency this Intelligence which you may make use of according to your Prudence and the Interests of the King your Master I am My Lord your c. Au Connetable de Castille La Hay le 23 Jan. S. N. 1670. Monsieur JE ne doute pas que Monsieur l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne ne communique á V. E. par ce Courier le Projet du concert des forces particulieres lequel a eté arreté icy par le consentement des Ministres de trois Confederez Je puis bien assurer V. E. que pour le reduire á la forme ou il est tous les Ministres se sont relachez á l'envi autant qu'il leur a eté possible Il seroit inutile de les presser de nouveau pretendre en obtenir davantage Nous avons trové assez de difficulté á l'emporter sur les Ministres de Suede pour avoir sa Guarantie avant que d'aller plus loin de faire de nouveaux pas inutiles aprés tous ceux que nous avions faits Il nous asseure de n'avoir jamais rien proposé qui tendît á faire venir de Troupes de Pomeranie ni de Breme qui sont des lieux ou il n'y en a pas un plus grand nombre que ce qu'il faut pour les garnisons que si l'on le presse sur ce point il nous repond que pour entretenir des Troupes supernumeraires en ces lieux lá il faut des Subsides en tems de paix même qu'a ces conditions la Suede en sera satisfaite Il me semble que c'est assez qu'il promette de faire agir le 16000 hommes trois mois ecoulez aprés l'attaque car il n'y a guere d'apparence d'employer de si grandes forces que par voye de diversion Les Troupes qui doivent etre fournies par sa Majesté les Etats Generaux etant jointes á celles du Roy Catholique leur nombre sera suffisant pour la deffense des Paîs-bas car on n'a pas dessein de se repandre dans le paîs de s'y elargir ni de paroitre maitre de la campagne V. E. voit que quand il luy plaira quinze jours de tems la rendront maitresse de dix mille hommes de Troupes des Etats Generaux á l'egard du Roy mon Maitre quoy que le terme ne soit ni exprimé ni precisement specifié il me semble pourtant que V. E. ne peut former de difficultez sur cela Car ces mots Au plustot que faire se pourra emportent bien un terme limité quelque court qu'on veuille le sousentendre personne n'ayant jamais exigé une chose plutôt qu'elle ne se peut faire J'avoüeray que les ordres pleins pouvoirs de la Reine Regente d'Espagne qui nous ont eté communiqués par l' Ambassadeur Gamarra ne faisants aucune mention de cette petite difference je n'en avois pas donné avis á sa Majesté me croyant assés muni assés autorisé par mes pleins pouvoirs pour signer le même projet qui avoit eté envoye en Angleterre aussi bien qu'en Espagne J'espere que dés que V. E. aura depeché les Pouvoirs á l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne de delivrer l'argent il n'y aura plus de difficulté á la signature du Projet tel qu'il luy a eté communiqué Et autant que je le puis juger sur tout par rapport au Ministre de Suede je ne croy plus que cette affaire trouve de retardement C'est dequoy j'ay voulu donner avis á V. E. C'est á elle á en user selon sa prudence les interets de son Roy á m'estimer comme je suis c. To Sir John Trevor Hague Jan. 24. S. N. 1670. SIR I Am to acknowledge yours of the 7th with an enclosed to Monsieur Van Beuninghen which I have sent to Amsterdam having first perused it as you pleased to give me leave I shall say nothing upon it till I have spoken with him and seen how we agree in Matter of Fact Because the Weight of all seems to lie upon the use of those privative Contracts to the Exclusion of our Trade having been disowned if not invalidated by the Treaty between the two Nations after the first War and upon the Practice having been exercised accordingly for several Years after and till within few Years of our second War Which two Points if they can be evidenced by the Treaty and by sufficient Testimonies of the subsequent Practice we have certainly all the Reason in the World for our Demands But if we must rely upon the common Equity in Freedom of Traffick between Friends we are engaged in the Question upon which we cannot yet agree whether the same Rules are current in the Indies as in Europe To which I suppose we shall hardly our selves consent if the West must be comprehended as well as the East But I shall be able to say more upon this when I have got a Sight of the Treaty after the first War and heard Monsieur Van Beuninghen upon your Letter And in the mean time shall assure you of all the Offices I can possibly render towards
yet observed in the chief Ministers here who are as hard and as firm as you can imagine them But for Tricks or Jugling I do not observe either their Abilities or their Dispositions lie much that way nor I believe does any wise Man 's unless he be brought to it by the ill Condition or Necessity of his Affairs and finds no other way of living which is not yet their Case here nor will be I suppose while Flanders is preserved And so long I shall look upon them as Merchants in good Estate and Credit and who will endeavour to keep it up by square dealing But whenever they fail in that Adventure I shall grow as jealous of them as I see others are I have enquired particularly of the Spanish Ambassador and am assured by him that all Monsieur de Witt 's Discourses upon that Subject of the late Answer from Spain agreed perfectly with what he made me upon the same Occasion And I know the States Deputies at Brussels had immediate Orders from hence to apply themselves very earnestly to the Constable for the Redress of that Fault And I dare say whoever thinks that these Men here will quit a Point of Interest for a Point of Honour has taken a wrong Measure of them The Spanish Ambassador bids me be assured That the Answer from Spain will be amended and come in all Points to his Majesty's Satisfaction He goes this Day from hence towards Brussels being hastned thither by an Express from the Constable who I believe intends to make use of him in the Junto there upon whom I hear he will wholly devolve all his publick Business Having taken an Attestation from his Phisicians that his ill Health has rendred him wholly uncapable of charging himself any longer with it For Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Errand into England I suppose the Rise of it was of an old Date and occasioned a good deal by my laying often to their Charge the want of Respect they shewed his Majesty in the choice of the Ministers they sent into England who are seldom of the Province of Holland or of those Persons most considered in this State Besides when I found I was not able to bring the Business of our Marine Treaty to such a Conclusion as we proposed though I failed but in one Article which yet it seems is thought to import the whole of our Pretensions there I told them here That it would be absolutely necessary to treat it in England and bring it to some Issue there And for that purpose to send some able Person over who being perfectly intrusted in it from hence might debate it there with Persons as well instructed on our Side Upon these Grounds Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Journy was thought fit above a Year ago but his being chosen Burgomaster of Amsterdam about the same time made him then absolutely refuse it Since his Year expired my Instances still continuing for a Conclusion in our East-India Business and Mr. Secretary Trevor's Papers upon the same Subject keeping Life in it from Time to Time Monsieur Van Beuninghen began about two Months since to shew some Inclination to the Journy which has been pursued very earnestly by the States here and especially by Monsieur de Witt till it came lately on all Sides to be resolved on So as your Lordship must reckon that the avowed Errand will be the Business of the East-India Company and the clearing that part of the Marine Treaty which so long proved too hard for me here Besides this will be the Compliment they pretend to make his Majesty in sending a Person of so much Account among them as Monsieur Van Beuninghen And with the Orders of Surinam which they here reckon upon as a perfect Piece of Compliance with his Majesty And this is the Account they give the French Ambassador of this Journy adding a good deal of Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Inclination to see England in this Season That which is further meant by it is First in general to inform themselves perfectly of our Temper in the Pursuit of those Ends we have been these two or three Years last engaged in And which many Discourses and Reflections of late have made them a little suspect does not continue so equal and so warm as it began And in this Regard it will be his Business to use his best and most parsuasive Oratory to confirm us in the Pursuit of those common Interests abroad which we have of late so much advanced by our Triple Alliance and the Dependances of it And in short to persuade us that it is more our Honour and our Interest to Lead than to Follow In Pursuit of this he will I believe endeavour to dispose Us to accept a Conjunction with such Princes of the Empire as desire it upon such Measures as are proposed in the late Project I sent your Lordship drawn up by Monsieur de Witt Though I have made so good way in defending you upon this Point that I believe it would not cost much Trouble there unless you are willing to enter further into it than you seemed of late Another Point and that which I believe he will most eagerly pursue is the Prohibition of French Commodities upon which his particular Imagination has been long bent as the only sure and easy way of bringing the French Power and Riches into Decay in case the Thing could be agreed on among all or the greatest part of their Neighbours And this State having sounded the Spanish Court upon that Point received Answer That whatever England and They should agree upon Spain would readily join with Them in it By which means they suppose that besides what would be saved by both our Nations by stopping the vast Importation of French Commodities a very great Traffick would be gained by exporting our own to furnish the Spanish Fleet which supplies their West-Indies every Year in a great measure with Commodities brought them from France The Resolutions of this State go as yet no further as I can hear than to all sorts of wearing Goods and Brandy nor do I know whether this it self will be brought to Execution before they are satisfied how far we are likely to join with Them in it After which the Considerations of Wine and Salt will likewise come in Play Besides these Publick Matters I doubt you will likewise be pursued about Mr. Honywood's Widow who is Daughter to a Burgomaster of Amsterdam and so most properly under Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Protection especially being a young and handsom Widow which I hear will tempt her to go over with him herself and plead her own Cause I do not think the Intentions of his Journy go further than what I have mentioned unless he be invited to any Thing upon the Place or by some new Accident from abroad In the mean time to do him right we shall have a great deal of Reason to welcom him because he has very industriously employ'd himself in helping us to gain