THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED With the Methods and Arts TO Retrench the Potency OF FRANCE BY LAND and SEA And to Confine that MONARCH Within his Antient DOMINIONS and TERRITORIES Humbly submitted to the Consideration of the PRINCES and STATES of EUROPE especially of ENGLAND Written in a LETTER From a Person of Quality abroad to his Correspondent here Nulla potentia scelere quaesita est diuturna LONDON Printed for R. Baldwin 1681. THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED c. SIR IN obedience to your Commands I have soberly considered your learned Discourse wherein are such excellent Prudentials of Government such grave Aphorisms of State and the whole composed with so great judgment that it makes me think the Opinion of the equality of Souls to be a Paradox Yet I must beg your pardon if I cannot obtain so much favour of my Reason as to agree with you that in this Juncture of Affairs in Europe it 's England's Interest to stand Neutral When Neighbour Princes are at difference and their Forces not greatly unequal and no fear of any Parties aggrandizing it self it may be prudence But when Kingdoms are tottering Nation reeling against Nation and France endeavouring to set up an Empire over the Emperour himself and by the power of Arms reducing Princes and States under an Vniversal Dominion as it 's evident to be the French Designe then I take it for England to be an idle Spectator and to sit still is the greatest Soloecism in point of State For that Prince which stands Neutral and suffers his weaker Neighbours to be subdued except his strength doth over-ballance the Victors doth but expose himself to danger and his own Dominions to the mercie of the Conqueror Theramenes thought it a great instance of prudence during the Peloponnesian War and the troubles of the Athenians to keep himself quiet without taking part with the one or with the other but in the end was deserted by all his Dominions made a Prey and his Life a Sacrifice to the prevailing Powers Certainly Sir nothing can be more becoming the wisdom of the greatest Prince than to be watchful that the States about him should not in-greaten themselves by access of Dominions by ruining of Confederates blocking up of Trade or by the like means Hence it was that Sextus Quintus being jealous of the Spanish Greatness and that his designe was of aggrandizing himself with great efficacy stirred up the Crown of France to assist and defend the States of Holland And for this reason of State Pope Julius the second Maximilian the Emperour Lewis the twelfth of France Ferdinand of Aragon and other Princes and States An. Dom. 1508. at Cambray entred into a League against the Venetians yet so as the Confederates had a perpetual Eye one upon the other that none of them should over top And the best Guard which the Italian Princes have is the reciprocal fear which the one of them hath of the other The wisest Princes have ever been in this point very jealous and the more jealous the less they have been deceived for then are Kingdoms and States most safe when their Neighbouring Forces are not greatly superiour to their own Strength And it 's prudence in a Prince as well to contain his best Friends within a moderate Greatness as to weaken and depress his most potent Enemies The safety of Princes consists in the equal counterpoise of Power for Power is never safe when it groweth bold and doth exceed And therefore it was great weakness and oversight in the Neighbouring Princes and States to the Commonwealth of Rome to suffer it to grow to that magnitude of Reputation and Power that when forty Princes and States being jealous of its Power with united Forces did endeavour to reduce it they were all subdued and their Conspiracies did much contribute to the enlarging ber Dominions for by seeking to suppress Rome they made them not onely provide for their own defence but also gave them the means how they might with more Force better advice and greater Power offend them It hath been looked upon as a great imprudence in Lewis the twelfth of France after he had gotten Millain to give Aid to Pope Alexander to seize upon Romagnia who thereby became so powerful that he would have made himself Lord of Tuscany if Lewis had not with his Army made a descent into Italy The Neighbouring Princes to the Signiory of Geneva would not suffer it though but a palm of ground to fall into the hands of the Duke of Savoy or of any other Potentate of more strength than himself insomuch that when he besieged it An. 1589. England the State of Venice and Florence aided them And at another time when the Pope the French King the Spaniard and Savoy had designes upon it the Emperour offered them assistance both of men and money and sometimes the Duke of Savoy hath assisted them against the others So watchful were Princes and States in those times that none of them could enlarge their Dominions thereby to become troublesom or formidable to their Neighbours France and Spain were the Scales of the great Ballance of Europe and England was then the Beam of that Ballance which kept it in an even Counterpoise And let me tell you Sir England by observing this fundamental Maxime of their State and by contributing Aid to one Party hath ever risen in Honour and Reputation and most commonly hath kept both Parties at their Devotion and in Dependancy the one in hopes of Succors from them the other for fear of their giving Assistance against them And in case England should not take any Party yet in prudence a Fleet must be equipped Souldiers raised an Army maintained and all this Expence and Charge without any Fruit or Glory otherwise the Scene of the War may be turned upon you and the Ambition of the Victor may erect his Trophies and extend his Triumphs into England Whereas by giving Aid unto one Party you will maintain a Spring and Seminary of brave men at the expence of others which will make you considerable to your Neighbours And in case of an Accommodation or Peace you shall be sure therein to be comprized which will be your Safety Otherwise you will remain friendless exposed to the charity of the Conqueror and to the scorn and contempt of the Conquered who upon all occasions will meditate revenge against you for not giving them your Aid and it may be that both Parties with united Forces may attempt against you However that Prince or State which will stand for a Cypher when in prudence he is obliged to arm shall with Servilius in Rome please neither side of whom the Historian observeth that P. Servilius medium se gerendo nec Plebis vitavit odium nec apud Patres gratiam inivit Henry the Eighth amongst several other Princes understood this Maxime of England so well that he assumed unto himself this Motto Cui adhaereo praeest Sometimes he would make Charles the Fisth weigh
Treaties can be reckoned which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmed by Oaths and Sacraments and contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Tyes of Bloud and Marriage Before a Breach complained of or a War declared they invaded the Territories of an Infant King Have they not by Addresses and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavoured to corrupt most of the Ministers of State in Europe How well they have kept the Articles of Peace concluded at Westphalia and Nimmeguen the Emperour King of Spain and Princes of Germany can tell you And can you prudently hope that the future Practices of the Most Christian King will be more just than his former He that hath broken thorow so many Obligations Alliances and Treaties will he not do so again Be assured Sir you cannot anchor any faith or confidence in the Alliance or Friendship of France for France is a floating Island and no Terra firma It 's prudence to keep an Enemy at the Swords point and not to suffer him to come within you The Spanish Dominions are the Fountain from whence you draw a great part of your Traffick and by consequence your Riches The Netherlands are the Out works of England if they are taken you are weak and dismantled And let me tell you Sir the day of the Ruine of Flanders is the eve of the Subversion of England If the Vnited Provinces should be brought under the subjection of France it would be a thing of that dreadful consequence that the very thoughts of it must needs raise the bloud of all true English men They are so scituated that several of the greatest Rivers in Europe not onely run thorow their Country but disembogue into the Ocean within their Precincts If the French make themselves Masters of the Rivers as it 's their designe and endeavour will they not in a short time bring all the Havens and all the Inhabitants bordering upon the Sea under the same subjection The Sea-ports without the Rivers and the Rivers without the Sea-ports being altogether useless if they be reduced under the Obedience of the French their Country will be the Nursery of his Sea-men and in all other respects the support of his Naval strength If they must be Slaves will it not be some satisfaction to them to lend a helping hand to bring their Neighbours and in truth all Europe into the same condition with themselves The conquering of the Vnited Provinces is not onely a fair step but it 's the best part of the way to the Universal Monarchy They being conquered the Spanish Netherlands will of course fall into their hands being the Key which opens the door to the Throne of that Monarchy And if you do not act vigorously with the rest of the Confederates the Most Catholick King will be enforced to take new Measures and break with you I need not use many words to make all England sensible of the sad consequence of a Spanish War 1. The seizure of all your Merchants Estates amounting in the whole to a vast sum 2. The loss of your Trade with them which of all others is the most beneficial to England and without which your Woollen draperies must lie upon your hands and half of your Weavers and Spinners c. go a begging 3. The interruption of your Levant and Plantation-trade which cannot in case of a Breach be secured by ordinary Convoys With what encouragement or safety can your Traders venture abroad when the Seas come to be infested with Ostenders Biscainers Majorcans and Minorcans Did not those very men without any help take above 1500 Ships from you in the late Spanish War when Spain was at the lowest and fought alone against England and France I could offer many other reasons but I am unwilling to be troublesome When the French King suffered the Duke of Alenson his Brother to take upon him the Title of Duke of Brabant and defence of those Countries he sent an Embassadour into Spain to excuse his Brother's going thither and signifie unto the Spanish King that which was done was done without his privity or consent The Spanish King was highly displeased with the Message and answered the Embassadour That he had rather have the French King his professed Enemy than a dissembling Friend And whether England ought not to have the same Sentiments I pray consider The French have no kindness for England but an inlaid and hereditary Malice against them When Lewis of France sent an Army into England to the assistance of the Barons there against King John their Soveraign Prince he vowed utterly to extinguish the English Nation whom he held vile unjust perfidious and never to be trusted as it was declared with much compunction by Viscount Melun a French Gentleman lying at the point of death And I can easily believe that the same Rancor doth yet run in the veins of the French I pray Sir who contrived and encouraged the Distempers of the Scots against King Charles the First was it not France And the Peace at Rippon Anno 1639. being concluded between the two Nations but much against their will did not France stir them up to break that Peace and to make a second attempt by their Arms on England Which they durst never have done if they had not received countenance and encouragement from France By their Emissaries they formed a Rebellion in England and underhand supported it and his Majesties Forces being defeated and broken France look'd on till that great King was sacrificed to the Tyranny of his worst Enemies His now most Sacred Majesty England being hang'd all with Blacks and the best of his Subjects weeping over the Kingdoms funeral for the safety of his person retired into France where he might have expected protection from so near a Relation and comfort as a distressed Prince but found none for by virtue of an execrable Treaty made with the then Usurper he was forced to forsake that Kingdom or else would have been resigned up to Cromwel For the chief Article of that Alliance was That his Majesty the Dukes of York and Gloucester with all their Relations and Friends should be expelled out of and no more admitted into the Kingdom of France If the French King had had the least trillo or touch of Honour in him he would never have yielded to such a Condition as to banish out of his Kingdom those who came to him for succour and relief in the utmost extremity that ever Princes were put to and they his nearest Relations being his Sisters Children And what could be more unbecoming so great a Prince than to make a League Offensive with him who had murdered their Father and expelled them out of their Dominions What was this but the owning of that Murder and aggravating their Oppressions instead of relieving of them Such practices as these amongst private Christians would be abominable and much more amongst any Kings not stiled the Most Christian
But you may observe that neither Honour or Relations can stand in competition with Self-interest Did they not oppose his Majesties restauration to the Emperial Crown of his Royal Ancestors Did they not cabal with his greatest Enemies to keep him out of his Kingdom Of which his now Majesty was so sensible that upon his coming into England he commanded away the French Embassadour Bordeux and would not suffer him to come into his presence In the times of the Usurpation in England they were the mischievous Instruments of the War between you and the States of the Vnited Provinces as they were of the two following in 1665. and 1671. dreading nothing more than a durable and firm Friendship between the two Nations blowing up the Fends on both sides pretending to take part with each that they might with less opposition invade their Neighbours and increase their Naval strength but not really purposing it with either having the same designe of weakening both Parties for your weakness is his strength as the Britans formerly had in throwing the Apple of Contention between the Picts and the Scots that they might in the end be the better able to overcome both When you had Victory in your palms and Triumphs in your prospect it was ravished from you by their means The Bishop of Munster who was his now Majesties Allie and in Arms against the said States was necessitated to withdraw his Forces for the security of his own Territories because they sent their Troops against him France wrought Denmark off from your Party and hindered the Swedes to arm in favour of you and contrived that Affront you suffered to your shame and dishonour at Chatham They have made it their Master-piece to raise Jealousies between you and the Dutch and at last sided with the Dutch in a War against you not with any intention for themselves to fight but to see you destroy each other Did they not most treacherously put to the sword and slavery his Majesties Subjects in St. Christophers plundered them of all which by their industry and providence they had for many years acquired But a Peace at Breda being concluded the French were by the Treaty to return to his Majesty St. Christophers in such sort as therein is expressed But instead of performing it according to the true meaning and the very letter of the Article they upon several unjust and frivolous pretences did not deliver it in four years to the Commissioners which were sent to receive it For it 's against the Candor and Integrity of the French Cabal to part with any thing that may be of conveniency for them to keep But at last they delivered it to Sir Charles Wheeler but before the delivery of it they destroyed all the Plantations plundred and carried away all that was there laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse condition that if it had never been planted And as if the detaining of his Majesties Territories had not been sufficient they interrupted the Trade of his Subjects in those parts and assuming to themselves the Soveraignty of those Seas they would not suffer any Ships but their own to sail by or about their Islands and upon no other ground have brought in as Prizes and confiscated many Vessels In 1674 1675. when the Dutch and Neighbour-Nations were in War but England in Peace who thereby expecting a great Trade bought many Dutch-built Vessels the King of England accordingly granted them his License to trade in them by reason of the Act of Navigation But France to hinder the Trade of England issued out an Edict for the seizing of all Ships bought in any Enemies Country And in execution of their Edicts there came out a swarm of French Capers who not onely seized on those Dutch-built Ships though they had his Majesties License but sinding the sweetness of that Trade seized upon your English-built Ships on pretence they carried Enemies goods whilst they themselves would be Judges they did actually seize all English-built Vessels meerly laden on the account of being English Merchants and retook many which had been discharged in France they plundered your Ships and wounded your Sea-men There were about 400 fail of your Merchants Ships seized by them in this manner many of which the French did absolutely condemn and such as were released were kept some three months some six months some twelve months and others longer and then were discharged with great damage by expence and plunder in France besides the first affronts and violences And after all you lost the intended Fruit of your Voyages and what was yet worse they making the most advantages of every thing got many thousands of your Sea-men by extraordinary Pay to engage in his service And that which may super-adde Calamity to your Misery when the French did forbear to take your Ships the Algerines Allies of France and by them set up have continually pickt up your Merchant-men and Vassalized your Sea men ever since And what they take from you they carry into the French Harbours where the French buy the Commodities at their own prices I need not tell you the great discouragements your French Trade hath for many years lain under through their unjust practices and manifold devices Nor shall I speak now how by their Emissaries and Factories of Sedition they have contrived and brooded a most execrable Plot in England and other his Majesties Kingdoms and have sown Divisions Discontents and Jealousies amongst his good Subjects thereby to prevent his Majesties Royal inclinations in giving his assistance to his oppressed Neighbours against that great Prince If these Enormities and Super-injustices of the French Cabal be not sufficient to awaken England considerate men will wonder what Opiate hath cast you asleep and if you be not enchanted by the Magick of French Pistols I pray Sir draw the Curtain open your eyes and see if the Liberty of all Christendom be not now at stake Do you think it will adde any Trophies to your Glory when Posterity shall say It was England which advanced the Most Christian King into the Throne of an Universal Monarchy Is it not your interest to oppose that Power which opposeth all Europe and labours to bury it in the Grave of Infamy and Slavery If you be backward to give your Assistance when you may have so many Allies what will you do when their Forces are broken and you are enforced singly to contrast the Power of France and its new Acquests What you may expect from his Mightiness enquire of the Duke of Lorrain and of the Princes of Germany and they will tell you The Dominion of the British Sea which is your Glory and ought to be your Care is gone He will give Law to your Commerce and Navigation which is now your Honour will be nothing but a Piracy to you and England for want of Trade being an Island will be nothing but a Prison to you You which are the great Merchants and so