to an Universal Monarchy he would advise his King to beg of God to prolong the World as much as he can This Malady ceasing in Spain hath passed into France but France being wiser doth not grasp so much and her King's Ambition is only confined to Europe a wish worthy of such a great Prince and who if we consider him aright could scarce demand less his Neighbours ought narrowly to watch his water for certain it is France cannot aggrandize her self without encroaching upon her nearest Neighbours as she doth really every day already When the House of Austria made broad signs of her design upon the Universe all the Princes of Christendom rose up against her and entered into an Association to prevent her Charles V. after the Battel of Pavia where Francis was taken Prisoner thought himself above all but he found business enough The Pope King of England the Venetians the Grand Duke of Tuscany the Swisse made a League against him to hinder this Emperour from bringing France and consequently the rest of Italy under his subjection It was not for any kindness the Pope and King of England bore King Francis that they combin'd together to relieve him but because Charles V. became so great that he would by his good Will have made himself Master of the World. Now at present forasmuch as this Itch is past into France All Princes of Europe for some time have run counter to whatsoever their Ancestors did in the Reign of Charles V and Philip II. and instead of opposing they have abetted and concurr'd with the designs of France some out of base compliance others out of fear There are none but the Princes of Nassau alone who have alwayes been fatal to whosoever had a mind to aspire to this sublime Monarchy of the Universe Do not Men admire with me the wretched Policy of several Princes and States in the World who look on with their Armes a cross and behold the French King to advance so fast and take Luxemburg a City of such grand Importance to Europe only the Prince of Orange presented himself upon the breach with the Low Countreys but who not being in a capacity to do any thing by himself was forced to retreat The French King would never have taken it had England and the States withstood it he hath no cause to brag of it it is a truth all the World knows but too well he was so cunning to get the King of Great Britain on his side that he consented to take what was not his own and to baffle the rest by illusory promises of an Universal Peace after the taking in of Luxemburg which they suffered him to do and this gross valiant Captain of a Trencher-man the Marquess of Grana Governour of the Low Countreys who was not promoted to this place but upon his demonstrating the means of being able to preserve this most Important place to the Court of Spain a place I say so necessary to Spain for the preservation of the Low Countreys by the assistance of Germany and albeit he should have minded nothing else but the preservation of that same City his own Honour as well as Duty to and interest of his King his Master being all engaged therein Instead of doing which this Fat-gut put into it only a pitiful Garrison of Twelve or Fifteen Hundred Men instead of Four Thousand and was wholly taken up in fortifying the City of Namur with his Regiments and some other places which were Cities on the boundaries which France would not have dared so much as to touch Would you not swear such a Fellow conspir'd to aggrandize France and concurr'd with the Designs of Lewis XIV When the King in 1667 would have undertaken the Conquest of the Spanish Netherlands England Swedeland and the Vnited Provinces associated together by the Triple League forced him soon to quit his hold they obliged him to re-procure and make a Peace with Spain and to restore to it some part of what he had usurped and taken away It would have been just so if the Neighbouring Princes had done the same at such time as he attacked Luxemburg Resist the Devil and he will fly from you But France cunning and subtle had sufficiently tryed how prejudicial this League was to her she could never be at rest till she had pluckt this Thorn out of her Foot and so soon as ever the term was expired she could not be satisfied till she had found out a way to hoodwink England and so got her disingaged from the Tripple-knot The Dutchess of Portsmouth like another Dalilah came over out of France into England to lull asleep the Sampson of this Kingdom France found out the way to act and speak so fair that she hook't in Dunkirk by Promises and Money at the beginning of the Reign of Charles II King of Great Britain A Town of so great Consequence to England in as much as it affords a good entrance into Picardy and Flanders 'T is no new thing for France to be troubled with this itching mind to sieze on the places of her Neighbours and to enlarge her Dominion from one end of Europe to the other The Duke of Rohan told us heretofore that Princes commanded People but that Self-Interest commanded Princes Without question he would have added something else had he lived in this Age and especially Lewis the XIV We may see Examples of it day by day and to secure his Ambition all times and seasons are good for him in Peace in War in Cessation of Arms. Interest is the evil Angel hath so long reigned through France we are taught out of History how Godfrey of Bulloign having a mind to take a Journey for the Conquest of the Holy Land and coming short of Money to put himself in a capacity to do it sold many of his Cities and Lands amongst others the City of Metz with the Country adjoyning which its own Citizens and Inhabitants purchased of him for the Sum of an Hundred Thousand Crowns They enjoyed this their purchase till the Year of our Lord 1551 in which Charles V. did so evilly intreat the Protestants of Germany Henry II. King of France under a pretence seemed forward to send Relief to the said Protestants of Germany In effect he dispatched the Constable of Monmorency with Four Thousand Men in all probability for this Expedition but it was quite and clean for another design as the sequel will make appear He demanded passage of the City of Metz who were for the most part of the same Religion with those who were molested in Germany between whom and the Emperour there was no good understanding They granted to the King with abundance of joy whatsoever he required of them in reference to his Troops passage and in testimony of their good will they caused Tables to be set up in the Streets to make the Soldiers eat and drink on their passage with huge demonstration of Friendship and Rejoycing But alas Their Laughter was
sacrificed so many brave men for the service grandeur and maintaining of that State yet that nevertheless they will stand to their Treaty of Peace and Allyance in the hopes they have always entertained and do still entertain that his Majesty to whom with the Royal Family they wish all happiness will on his part be responsable As for our part in particular though we have not had the happiness to see his Majesty yet we cannot chose but wish him all Personal Health and do assure your Excellency of the esteem and high value we put and all ways shall upon your deserts and incomparable vertue protesting to you that we are more particularly your most humble Servant After such a base affront who would not undervallue such Embassadours the Representatives and their Superiours also who durst present them with a Golden Chain of 500 Crowns value One would think they had an hand in it and that they were covetous of Money and Presents If an Embassadour after taking such an affront should have accepted it he would have deserved to be hanged with that Golden Coller By the refusal of Audience you may well understand what France is made of and its designs Whoever heard or saw a free and absolute Republique referr'd to a Parliament under his Authority as the King refers Geneva to the Parliament at Dijon it would have been more legal and just to have refer'd them to the Parliament at Turin Now behold the equity of this great King who would always be both Judge and Party in his own Cause who would make all Europe depend on his Judges some upon those of Metz others on those of Dijon and Aix in Provence as he forces the people of Orange to do but we hope those of Geneva will not submit to those unjust Judges and supposing they do they will not miss losing their Cause and after that they will make a new pretension upon them till they have fettered them and losing their City and Liberty they become the slaves of France a Victim offered up to the Jesuit and the Conquest of Lewis the great and it is odds but that will be so indeed if they don't look about them betime and prepare themselves for its coming upon them for he 'l come and give them a visit as he did the Genoueses Let them not flatter themselves with the contrary when he shall make them resolve to sacrifice themselves for their Liberty rather then to a Prince who would be their Antiochus their bloody Master and would snatch the Children from their Mothers embraces to deliver them into the hands of the Jesuits make them forsake Relations Religion and all duty of Christians and refusing to obey this ambition would hale them to the Scaffold and throw their Carcasses to dogs nay if so be they should deal more gently with them it would be only to make them bear company with his own Subjects in Dungeons in the Gallies and in the West-Indies Now take notice of this Spirit of France and beware of it That Lewis XIV is no good Christian I Shall finish this Treatise in demonstrating that this King is no good Christian that it is but a cloak for his Knavery the better to play fast and loose the better to bring about his ambitious designs that albeit he makes a great clutter with the title of most Christian King at Rome yet we find him to be nothing less All who are baptized are not Christians for then we might reckon Julian the Apostate and Arrius to be such whom men look upon as Apostates and Antichrists I am perswaded the Marquiss de Montespan will justifie what I say I cannot think that Prince worthy the name of a Christian who covets his Neighbours Wife nay before all the World takes her from her Husband makes use of her and begets Children of her whom he would fain get declared natural never before Lewis his time practiced in France He cannot assume the name of Christian who makes little Conscience to break the most solemn Oaths and Engagements made at the Communion as he did at the Peace concluded at the Perinees upon his Marriage with the Infanta of Spain And then the Oath taken at his Coronation to observe the Edicts of pacification are they not dayly violated and retracted upon every frivolous pretence Good Christians are such who live up to those Vows they have made even to very Infidels The Marquiss de Laverdin making his publick entrance into Rome did choose rather to do it like a Fox than a Lyon as since it appears without ever determining any thing positively concerning it when they demanded him to explain himself before he made his entrance so that engaging himself neither pro nor con it will always be time enough and seasonable to make his Masters will to stand him in stead as we shall see hereafter when the Provencal Fleet shall be before Civita Vechia and other Ports of the Popes Dominion besides that it was convenient to carry it fair to obtain the Bull for the Cardinal of Furstenburg whom France was assured would be nominated to the Coadjutorship of Cologn the Dean and Chapter as 't is credibly given out fingered the Kings Money to that in effect it was registred and their Votes sold so that it was not possible to go back with their word When the Marquiss de Lavardin entred Rome the business was as good as done and the King made sure of it but he found himself mistaken as to the Bull for he believed the Pope who is wise and good natured enough of himself not loving noise would yield at the Embassadors arrival that the Spiritual would give place to the Temporal but he was deceived in his account meeting with such stiffness and vigour in an old man which it may be one durst not have hoped for in a young man. In the mean time behold the Marquiss de Lavardin keeping watch and ward night and day and that round about the Palace of Fernese just as if it were a Fort surrounded with enemies before the Pope and the Conclave of Cardinals Noses By all these riots and indignities done to the most eminent person of the Church Vicar of Christ and St. Peters Successor is nothing in comparison to that which Talon the Kings Advocate hath belched forth against his Holiness and the Cardinals his Counsellors accusing the former to be a favourer of Heresie Jansenisme and of Quietists and a thousand other impertinences which is to be seen more at large in the demand of the abovesaid Talon to the Parliament of Paris and by the Embassadors protestation publickly affixed at Rome the expressions therein are scandalous that they might deservedly procure the fire for a private person but when one hath the power in his own hand he thinks he may Lawfully say and do whatsoever likes him But the Pope who is grave and wise will let him go on yea peradventure his great modesty and prudent behaviour may make the King come to himself again and acknowledge the wrong and that the Pope is Master at home in his own House and may be able to disannul and take away the Franchises of the Embassadors quarters when he shall see it convenient for the repose of his People and his own Conscience It is not his frequenting Mass which is a Characteristical mark of being a Christian or for being kind to the Jesuits for fear awes Princes sometimes to make much of Jesuits and shew much respect to them Hen. IV. was not free from this fear when he would have restored them in France for when the Duke of Sully advised him to the contrary he started up and replyed secure me my Life then for 't was more then probable that those who sued for their return had assured the King that if he did not do it he would be in imminent danger of being Murthered When Life is at stake what will not a man do to save it Who can tell but these good Fathers have told the King now Reigning if in case he did not root out all the Huguenots out of his Dominions this must come in alwayes ad majorem Dei Gloriam that he would endanger his Life What sign of a Christian was there in the King when he made a League with Cromwel to fall upon the Low Countries and to banish Charles II. from his Kingdom who was rightful Successor to the Crown of England and a good Catholick in his heart although afterwards out of Policy he was fain to appear otherwise Again what sign of Christianity doth there appear in a Prince who assists Count Tekely in league with the Turks against the Emperour A King who forbids all Bishops and Curats throughout his Dominion to cause Te Deum to be sung for the Victories of the Christians obtained over the Turks who impedes by force of Lewisses the progress of the King of Polands Forces against the same Turks that they may have the opportunity to employ all the Ottoman Forces against the Emperour thereby to make him abandon what he hath got at the dear rate of so much Christian blood What Christianity do you observe in the Kings proceeding at the Cities of Genoua and Orange where he hath no right at all So that by all that I have alledged all these Titles of most Christian and Catholick Zeal the King is so much taken with and affects is only a deceitful mask of hypocrisie to lull the Catholick Princes asleep the better to play his game and make himself Master of them one after another Although the King of England would hinder him as being the only man that could best do it he would endeavour to cause an insurrection of the Church of England men against him he would send them Money and Officers as he did to Cromwel so that one may say of the French King that he becomes all things to all men when his interest is at stake He enters into Covenant with Turk or Huguenot Pagans or Infidels against Catholicks themselves if it be necessary for promoting his greatness and to attain to the Monarchy of all Europe And for a conclusion this is the Kings Religion and your Wit and Policy of France FINIS
THE POLITICKS OF THE French KING LEWIS the XIV DISCOVERED With Respect to Rome Emperour and Princes of the Empire Spain England United Provinces Northern Princes Suisse Cantons And of Savoy With a short Account of His RELIGION Translated from the French. Licensed according to Order THE Policy of France And the MAXIMS of LEWIS the XIV Discovered to all EUROPE IT is not Birth which chiefly distinguishes Princes from other Men but their Parts and Abilities How many of them find we in History who having but an indifferent share of them make no other figure but to fill up Genealogy and whose Birth-days and the days of their Death are the only two which make any noise in the World. 'T is according as this Spirit or Genius is disposed in a Soveraign that he acts for the good and welfare or for the misfortune and undoing of his People Wo to thee O Land saith the Wise Man when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the Morning Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for Strength and not for Drunkenness The Jewish Nation were happy under David and Solomon but Rehoboam spoke to them in this manner My little Finger shall be thicker than my Fathers Loyns for whereas my Father put an heavy Yoak upon you I will put more to your Yoak My Father chastised you with Whips but I will chastise you with Scorpions Augustus Caesar was called Pater Patriae Father of the People of Rome but Nero their Hangman Philip II. was born of a wise Father who Reigned with general applause but yet he was a Blood-thirsty Man who spared not his own Blood and squandred away what Charles V. had preserved with so much Glory and Prudence Francis the First was the Idol of the French and Darling of the Nobility he acquired the Title of a mild gentle Prince in peace Victorious in War the Father and Restorer of Learning and liberal Arts but Charles IX that of Murtherer Henry IV. was surnamed the Great by reason of his great Actions he was the Darling and Father of his People and his beneficent sweet disposition seem'd to promise a happy Reign if a cursed Hand had not put a stop to the course of his Life Lewis XIII was surnamed the Just grounded without doubt upon the Gospel which assures us That blessed are the poor in Spirit and that theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven It was rather Richlieu's Spirit that reigned than his Lewis XIV did not discover his Inclinations whilst he was under the Tuition of his Mother and Mazarines lash but so soon as ever this latter was dead he shewed what he was His Flatterers in imitation of his Grand father gave him the Name of Great although he had not as yet deserved it 'T is true indeed He is Great as to his Ambition a great Usurper of the Territories of his Neighbour a great Enemy to the Holy See to the Pope and a great Persecutor of the Hugonots His Reign is full of nothing but great Monopolyes and his Louis d'ors are the only passe par touts or Keys that open the Gates to his Conquests He was born Armed and his first nourishment was the Blood of his Nurses which he drew himself that ambitious Spirit he is possest withall would willingly sacrifice a good part of his Subjects to his Passion and Greatness Wo be to thee O Land that groans under the burthen of such a Prince Wo to that People enslaved under his Dominion Under the Reign of Antiochus the Illustrious the Jews often cryed to God that he would deliver them out of the hand of their Oppressor Why may not the French put up the like Petition nay and all Europe besides to be delivered out of the hands of that Usurper Lewis the Great thought he already held in his hand the Scepter of the Monarchy of all Europe when Vienna was besieged yea he thought it within two hairs breadth of its destruction which he supposed inevitable grounded upon the Prophesies of Drabitius but perceiving this way stopt up he betakes himself to his first Errors and former Road he waits with great impatience to see what the Snares which he lay'd at the time of the Queen of Spains Marriage will produce Man purposes but God disposeth Time impairs the Mind as well as the Body and Princes are oftentimes fain to let their Successors do what they were not able to do themselves and so much the more because that same Divine Providence on which Princes depend as well as the rest of Mankind doth not mete here below by the measure of their Ambition Ambitious Men build Castles in the Air and by their good will would possess the whole Earth beside This itch reigns at this day in France and this is it which quite takes up the mind of Lewis XIV as we shall see by the sequel and the course he takes to accomplish his Designs The Policy of France and its Maxims in respect of all Europe in general HEretofore Men accused Spain for aspiring to an Universal Monarchy If it was so I suppose Philip II. begun to lose this hope when he perceiv'd the Sea and Winds oppose his designs and that the Armada which he called Invincible on Board of which he thought to have brought into Spain the British Isles c. came to nothing and that his choicest Troops who were embarqued therein served only to fight against the Waves and feed the Fishes of the Sea moreover when he saw that during the whole War of the Netherlands a small handful of People whom he called Gueux or Beggers in derision were alwayes able to hold up their Head against him nay and to beat him in several Encounters until such time as in the Year 1609 he was fain to cry Quarter make a Truce with the Vnited Provinces and acknowledge them for Free States This was a very bitter Pill and would scarce go down with a Prince who was so highly ambitious But it behoved him to swallow it and it wrought so strongly upon him that he lost Seven Provinces at a clap by it and part of the Indies Insomuch That this longing desire after the Universe began to abate by reason of his Age which had already lost the first heat of Youth and by reason of the bad success of all his Enterprizes Philip III. was as little fortunate as he and Philip IV. had great disappointments towards France and the Low Countreyes and was very glad by clapping up a Peace to acknowledge those who had been his Subjects for a Free and Soveraign Commonwealth holding of none but God Almighty Charles XI Reigning at present is a good Prince who loves his ease and would willingly quit all the Claims and Titles of his Ancestors to an Universal Monarchy for a Son and Heir to the Crown of Spain to succeed him Malherbe told us long since that if it were true that Spain aspir'd
of Philip IV. his Successor will have enough to do and a scurvy War to maintain The Queen who is altogether French both by her Birth and Inclinations has her Faction in the Kingdom and when the King is dead will much rather trust her Couzen-Germain than a Prince who is a Stranger at least would be so were it not for the Marriage which will be a great strengthning to his Party The Marriages of the Infanta's of Spain with Kings of France have ever been the cause of great differences between the two Crowns and very fatal to Spain but the Marriage of Maria Theresia with Lewis XIV compleats the misery which is inevitably falling upon Spain and how stifly soever the King of France may have denyed his designs yet he never intended to keep either his Word or Oath as to that matter We are sufficiently satisfied by the obstacles he puts that the Pyrenaean Treaty may not be registred in Parliament as also by his Manifesto's which have run all the World over of the Queen of France's Just Pretentions What good can Spain get by Marriages and Alliances with France On the contrary very great Mischief for 't is by reason of the last Marriage that France layes claim to all this the wiser Philip II. preferr'd the Arch-Duke Ernest and afterward Albert. The Truce which France has now made is design'd only to amuze and lull Spain and its Allies asleep Thus to make them lay down their Arms and in the mean time the French King has at least a Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men a foot who dance up and down sometimes towards Alsace sometime toward Cologne and pretty often toward the Low Countries All this is only to make them us'd to him that so they may think he has no design upon them and lay by all jealousie and suspition But when he finds a good opportunity you shall see him fall upon them as a Hawk upon her quarry and carry them off too if he pleases for what should hinder him when there 's not a Man in Arms and by that time the Allies can be prepared the King of France has done his business Thus this Truce is only to bear in hand and amuze the Princes of Europe that they may not make War upon him and that he may be constantly in a condition to take possession of the Dauphins Right so soon as ever the King of Spain is dead without any other legal Process but that of Dragoon Law The Spaniards will find themselves miserably deluded in relying upon this Truce 'T is a broken reed which will pierce through their hands and if unhappily the Emperour should be still ingaged in a War with the Turks what should hinder the two French Armies the one in Catalonia the other in the Low Countreys from being Masters of all where they go I know very well that the Interest of England and Holland are both concern'd to defend the Spanish Netherlands as the sequel will shew us But in the one the French have so true a Friend who has so much business beside upon his hands at home that he will concern himself no more for the Low Countreys than his Predecessor did for Luxemburg As for the States they have but Men enough to defend their own Country and are naturally very good Husbands As for Cologne and Munster his Majesty will probably put some Men into their Towns for them as he has done heretofore I think it a vast mistake in the Spaniard to send Men into the Low Countreys for Governours who for the most part go thither only to fill their Purse as the saying is and so return and to do this effectually they don't scruple to rob both King and Countrey pay neither Landlords nor Men which makes them desert so that instead of One Thousand Men in a Regiment perhaps there is Fifty and once I saw a whole Regiment which was going to change Garrison carried in a Waggon In short a Man need only to have been once in Flanders to see this that I tell you the Soldiers upon the Guard hold out their Hats to you for an Alms and the very Officers are fain to live with the Capuchins upon the Alms which the good Men beg The three last Irish Regiments which the King of England granted the King of Spain for the service of the Low Countries which were effectually raised are wasted like Snow before the Sun and now I don't believe there 's Fifty Men left Spain in my poor judgment is very much in the wrong for another thing that is to rely upon its Allies for the keeping of the Low Countries and upon that score to neglect having what Men are requisite for the Countreys security Besides they may be sure that France knowing the temper of the Governours so very well do often feel their Pulse and takes advantage of their weakness Understanding Men will never be beat out on 't but that the Marquis of Grana was made a Tool and put a helping hand to the taking of Luxemburg the thing is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day Four or Five Millions which he has left behind him are a shrewd sign of it I tell you no improbable matter and nothing but what happens every day there are very few Men in our Age who are proof against a Million of Money I confess there are some but you must grant me they are very rare The Low Countreys are no Inheritance to the Governours so that they get all they can out of it as if they hired it I wont say that all who come there are of the same stamp God forbid 't would be sad indeed if Spain had no Subjects that were honest but 't is very certain that for these last Ages France has gallanted the Low Countries and thinks them highly obliged if not depending upon her There 's no trick which the French craft does not use to bring about their designs for they have ever found that little Countrey a hard bone to pick but their present King has given it devilish bites these years last past France knows very well too that if they were once Masters of it they might then bend all their strength toward Catalonia and Rousillon and having nothing left to fear or quarrel about in that Countrey march on quickly to Madrid which is no difficult matter when they have once made themselves Masters of some of the Frontiers to go in and out at 'T is for this reason that the Councils of Spain considering the strength of France should take other measures than they do for the defence of the Low Countries and I see but one only expedient in the posture that the Spanish Affairs are in at present which can give them present ease except they had rather have that Countrey fall into the French hands as without doubt it must if they don't prevent it speedily It is certain that nothing but an Army with a good General can prevent the ruine which is falling