Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A87340
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An impartial character of that famous polititian and late admired minister of state, Cardinal Mazarine
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1661
(1661)
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Wing I81; Thomason E1085_4; ESTC R208051
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6,870
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12
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Cardinal that he not onely frustrated all his designs but at length drave him out of France and made him flye to the Enemies of his Countrey the Spaniards for relief and succour but especially at that time he shewed himself a true Politician when Conde had so much incensed the Princes and People of Paris against him that the King being but now arrived at the age to take the Government of the State into his own hands was with the Cardinal forced to depart from Paris and Arms ready to be raised on both sides the Duke of Lorain who had then an Army standing being called into the assistance of the Princes whom nothing but either the Death or Banishment of the Cardinal could satisfie but Mazarine by his cunning artifices drew Lorain from aiding hem so that the Princes came to an agreement with the King and left Conde to shift for himself This was the grand difference in which his Majesty of England is said to have enterposed and sensible of the miseries he and his Countreys and Kingdoms suffered by a Civil War perswaded them to a Mediation and Reconciliation whereby he is said to have gained to himselfe an odium from both Parties each believing him to be against them but especially the Cardinall is said to have been possessed that he should advise the King of France rather to let him be banished from his Court and Kingdom them hazard the embruing his Countrey in a Civil War from whence so many evils must necessarily ensue which some affirm made him ever after an implacable Enemy to his Majesty of England But indeed I do neither believe him to be his Enemy nor either friend or enemy to any Prince or Country any farther then at it stood with the interest of France whose faithful Minister of State he was and whose interest he pursued according indeed to his duty without respect either to Alliance or Consanguinity That this sufficiently appears by his making Peace and League with that Tyrant Traytor Oliver Cromwel upon connection of banishing all the Royal Progeny of England out of France which though it were an action that sounded with a great deal of dishonor in the ears of all Christian Princes yet was it a League very much for the Interest of France and therefore correspondent to his duty as a Statesman whose care was not to preserve the King of England but the Kingdom of France and by it himself in his Power and Glory And self-preservation we all know to be the first Maxim of Policy And that this League was absolutely beneficial and necessary for France as the state of that Kingdome then stood who can doubt when they consider what Potent Enemies she had then to wage War withall the Spaniards daily and hourly intrenching upon the French Dominions besides a Faction to oppose within it self so that without some assistance she seemed to be in a sinking condition and how by that assistance she again sprung up and shooted out her branches is so lately done that it cannot be forgotten Nor must we account it among the least of his policies that of contracting the Match between the King of France and Infanta of Spain which seems to me just as it were the period of this Labours that as he had maintained that Kingdom flourishing during his whole life-time by his Wisdom and Policy so he would at death leave it in a firm and entire peace and who knows but that he intended by this Peace to have endeavoured had not God restored him by better means before it was perfected the instating of our King into his Crowns and Kingdoms in recompence of those wrongs the Interest of France had before swayed him to Should I enumerate all his Politick transactions I should swell this intended short Character of him into a Volume I shall therefore give an account of his Person and particular Virtues and so conclude He was neither of a tall stature nor very Corpulent of a Mercurial Complexion Sanguine yet somewhat inclining to a melancholly constitution adorned with very handsome features in his face without doubt excellent in his youth yet in his oldest age so clear that a man might guess by them the greatness of his Soul His Carriage and Discourse were generally affable to all yet so extreamly reserved and close in all his designs as was admirable though he would often seem to disclose or discover what he kept most secret A man every way fitted for a Statesman and such a one whose Foxes Tail being pieced to the Lyon-like strength of France might in time had it not been for her Civil and intestine Factions have made her the terror of the World I never could hear that his worst Enemies could ever brand him with ony peculiar Vice Covetous he was not for though he must needs have gotten great sums of money yet he expended so freely and chiefly in Curiosities fetched from Italy my self have seen fiften hundred ancient Roman Statuaes in his Palace at Paris which in all inward glories far exceeded that of the Kings of France He was a Person of whom I cannot believe any other reason for his being made odious but that he exceeded others in Prudence and Policy In sum he was to the Kingdom of France what the Lord H. is to our present Soveraign A faithful Counsellor and prudent Minister of State An Advertisement THere is lately publisht an excellent piece Intituled Modern Policy completed or The Actions and Counsels Civil and Military of his Excellency the Lord General MONCK under all Revolutions since 1640 to 1660 with the Principles moral and Political upon which they were grounded illustred out of the best Masters of Policy Antient and Modern Sold by Henry Marsh at the Princes Arms in Chancery-lane 1661. FINIS