this Design be delay'd and leasure given France to debase Spain then all must yield to the rapid course of that Nation who is now making Chains for us nay carrieth them with her to bind and enslave such who shall first make head against her and at long run of all those who either secretly or openly maintained or abetted this horrible Design against the common and public safety And let her Neighbours be once brought down England devested of her Friends will be little more than the work of one day and must fall in that very moment she is Assaulted The pretext is ready either England shall lose the Title of France or France will usurp that of England I 'le explain my self somewhat more largely Faance being now rid and standing in no longer fear of her Competitors will infallibly break with England imitating herein Queen Elizabeth who quarrell'd with Francis the Second for Entituling himself Heir of that Crown she possessed and whereof she was exceeding jealous Mary of Scotland having furnished her Husband with a Title But suppose this colourable pretence be neglected yet will he serve himself of one more remote for who so hath a mind to pick quarrels and wage War will never talk so big and loud as the whole World may hear him I 'le not lead you far to fetch an Instance Lewis Son of Philip Augustus King of France reigned in England maugre all the oppositions of King Iohn who was deposed for his Tyrannies At length Iohn having recollected his miscarriages reconciled himself with the Pope becomes his Tributary demulceth his Holiness with his golden Promises and profound Submissions and Lewis unfortunately loseth his newly acquir'd Crown 'T is true he bequeathed the Right thereof such an one as it is unto his Successors who preserve it carefully and assert it publicly in a formal Prayer sung in these express words at their Coronation viz. That he will never relinquish the Scepter of the ancient Saxons Mercians and other Princes who have reign'd in England And therefore the Kings of France since Lewis the Eighth may with more justice say they assume the Title of Kings of England than the Kings of England style themselves Kings of France It was Ribbir that set up this imaginary Title and suggested unto France a pretext and ground for falling out with England upon the first and next favourable opportunity I have given her the first Intelligence of the Thunderbolt England may yet in time avoid it Is it to be imagin'd that Lovâ—is and many great ones whose Fortune and that of their Friends depends upon Warlike Employments will not now stir their King to those new attempts against England in case they want other Employment shewing unto him the easiness of it from the Divisions Jealousies and Unprovidedness that England is in and the many secret Friends they have here But in case they did alter these Measures or not now execute them yet seeing our forwardness and our Spirits Eyes and Arms to be up and ready for them that I say will make still our conditions better with them whether we stand their Enemies Friends or Neuters otherwise they will be more apt to slight both the one and the other But lastly let 's give Interest leave to follow Revenge and shew what Measures we ought to take from the Consideration of this cogent Topic. I confess the Motive is interwoven with that of Glory but yet more firmly because it runs on two Principles and both of vast weight and consequence the one is particular and private Interest the other is more general and public This last aims at the common Repose of Europe and its care and perpetual endeavour must be to restrain the Ambition of those two great Potentates who court the Empire which cannot be effected without conserving England's Peace at home and confining those two inraged Neighbours to their just and respective Bounds that if one of them should win any thing from his Rival he may not presently invade England who became an idle Spectator of their Actions without cherishing their mutual Enmities and giving a Curb to their several Enterprizes If Reason of State speaks loudly in deaf Ears Glory doth it in shriller and clearer Terms But over and above this general Peace of Europe wherein I could wish England were occupied there is somewhat in special that should rouse her up from her present Lethargic drowsiness viz. That France brags how facil it is to blind her Eyes and cause her to take what new Measures she pleaseth You will say these are points of grand Importance Convince England of them Well! I shall debate of both immediately Let 's first touch at this of the common Safety and we will in the next place consider of the proper means to bound France that she may not abuse their Credulity who can certainly and absolutely mortifie her Marillac Ambassadour for Francis the First thus writes to his Master from London that the English were displeased they had suffered the French to fortifie Ardres and that before it was too late they would hinder the finishing those Fortifications Adding That they were vext to the Heart that the King had fortified Ardres and that they repented very much to have permitted our men proceed so far that yet notwithstanding they had time enough to reduce matters to their former state because they had been informed that Ardres could not yet in one whole year be so repaired but that it might be as easily forc'd But if Ardres which is no more than a shadow of what France possesseth in the Low Countries did heretofore strike a Jealousie into England should not that gross multitude of important Towns and the Thirds of a large and vast Estate render her now by far much more jealous especially since it hath given such fearful and violent shocks unto the whole Land made another Neighbour Republick tremble yea and it trembles to this very day at their near Approaches the French Armies being led on by a mighty Captain trained up in the School of business enur'd to Hardships and fortunate Successes in all his Conduct and Administrations And Ardres to lay nothing of Calais and Graveling is something less than Dunkirk if it be considered according to the present Estimate that France doth set upon it These two places are the two Ports from whence one day the Storm shall be wasted over into England if England suffer France to incorporate the Naval Forces of Holland with her own and to inoculate that fair Bud into her Imperial Crown Persons of the weakest Understanding may without difficulty penetrate into the Issues and Successes of such an Union And let it be remembred that France was formerly invenem'd against England for redemanding Calais and having once got it out of the Spaniards hands she wanted neither Armies nor any other considerable means to make a sure and speedy Conquest of other places If Fear then bounded their proceedings because it was not so easie a
very great Oversight to suffer themselves to be charmed by your Flatteries and Cozenages When as Queen Elizabeth redemanded Calais for just Reasons she then alleged the French resolved rather to endure a War wherewith she menac'd them than to surrender it Because saith the same Laboureur there was a double danger one to suffer our ancient Enemies to get footing in the Continent of France and then too because they are Hereticks who would always have a Faction in the State to revive their old Quarrels at pleasure and that it more concern'd us now than heretofore to shut them up with their new Religion on the other side the Sea This was done in the Sale of Dunkirk and if any other place offer it self to purchase France will be no Higler but purchase it at any rate supposing she be discharged of her Wars with Spain Again Queen Elizabeth insisting still upon the Restitution of Calais and speaking of it unto Sancy he after several shifts and excuses By God Madam quoth he can Tour Majesty be so simple as to imagine the King my Master would give you Calais again Which Answer touching her to the quick she demands Bouloigne in lieu of it The King who foresaw the Consequence of the English setting footing once more on French Ground commanded her to be told That he had rather the King of Spain should give him a Box on the ear than the Queen of England should give him a Filip And in troth she had not Calais when the term of Eight Years was expired although according to Treaty it was then to have been surrendred or Hostages and sufficient Security for payment of Five hundred thousand Crowns promised her in case of Non-performance But as usual they fail of their Words and the good Queen onely recovered Six score thousand Crowns at the Treaty of Troys Thus Calais is once again become French France loves her own Repose and Glory too much ever to part with it and the Subjects as well as their Prince are too much in love with it to suffer it slip out of their hands I speak but the very words of the Cardinal of Lorrain There is no Frenchman saith he but would rather hazard his Life than advise the King to surrender Calais and would not more willingly sacrifice his whole Estate than once give his consent thereunto This was spoken like a true Frenchman and their Neighbours should resent such daring Expressions as tenderly as they themselves do if there be any thing of credit in what S'aavedre reports That the Prince's Acquists enhaunce his Dread and Reverence but what he forgoes redounds to his contempt and scorn Francis I. would never engage himself with Charles V. against England fearing left in the Conquest of this Kingdom it should happen to him as it did in the Conquest of Naples between Ferdinand of Arragon and Lewis XII The Emperour being unable to brook an Equal and himself a Superiour Besides Francis should have drawn upon himself a more potent Enemy than him of whom he was rid the Leopards of England being no less terrible than the Eagles of the Empire or the Lions of Castile Yea the Spaniards stifly seconded the English in their demands of Calais confessing That they ought not to abandon them and that if they were not protected they very well knew Spain would be next ruin'd so that their own Losses would be greatest This is written by the Cardinal of Lorrain Spain then reason'd solidly and judiciously In prospect of this Henry VIII coined Medals of Gold on whose Reverse a Hand appeared out of a Cloud holding a Pair of Balances in equilibrio the two Scales whereof signified France and Spain with this Motto He wins on whose side I turn Queen Elizabeth governed her self by the same Maxim and assisted Henry IV. so long as he was weakest but seasonably forbore when once she saw him start up beyond his just and proper bounds and at that time told Sully That neither France nor England nor any others had any thing to do with the Low Countries and that she would never endure the French King should gain so much as one inch of ground there And when as Pope Clement VIII told Cardinal Ossat that England hated France implacably he replied At this time England hates Spain more and that they ought now to regard the present state of Affairs which had united both French and English against a common Enemy by one common Interest which was evermore the strongest and securest band among all States and Princes This Reason which once serv'd the turn of France shall at another opportunity do Spain a kindness Because Kingdoms are not to be reputed strong or weak as they be in themselves but as they hold comparison with their Neighbours and from proportion wherewith they are adjusted one unto another Du Plessis sent this Message to Walsingham in England not to abandon Henry IV. nor the German Protestants Let 's see whether we may not use those self-same words to evince the true Interest of England Charles I. was convinc'd of it and Charles II. hath been also and will be possibly yet more when like a great and deep Statesman he shall be pleased to penetrate into the future And it is not to be doubted by the way he begins to take and by what he had done formerly in Person at the Head of his Army that he will not suffer himself to be over-reach'd by false Reasonings nor give his Slanderers occasion to say of him as of his Grandfather King Iames That he knew not how nor ever cared to manage businesses nor would once put his hands to dispatch them till such time as both means and opportunities had quite forsook him I don't doubt but that Charles our gracious King who now reigneth will recollect what happen'd how and by whom unto his Father and what manner of Treatment he met withall in France even with no less than Banishment And for all possible Allurements from the French he may be fully confident of receiving the same measure from them again if the same occasion were which God forbid or if he quit Spain with his own true Interest and that of his Kingdom which subsists by Commerce to imbrace the Humours and Private Interest of half-sighted and corrupt Ministers France debitting none other Commodities than her Brandies and Apish Gewgaws in lieu of those substantial Merchandizes England hath of her own and importeth for all Quarters of the habitable World And when Realities are forsaken and Deceits and Cheats taken immoderate and restless Spirits do ordinarily take hold of such sensible Arguments to alienate and imbitter the Hearts of the People which though frequently too too querimonious yet gracious Princes without humouring them in all their childish Cravings will nevertheless comply with all that shall be manifestly for their solid Good It were a pleasant story to relate the Civilities of France to Edward IV. who being at a pinch and driven out of
the French are just now ready for us or preparing against us but that the French do presume to set up Claims to our Countrey is apparent to the World in their Books and late Manifesto's and give out mean contemptible Characters of us to seek to raise the Spirits of their Natives to triumph over us that whether such things be done in Joke or Earnest it is by such Artifices they began the Conquest of our Neighbours its plain that they never let any of their Pretensions die but watch fit opportunities for the execution of them that the extraordinary number of their present Ships is not answerable to any Design they might have on any Inland Towns or Places in Italy or Germany What use is there of Ships to sail on the Land that if there were no other Attempt against us their Fleet is such that it ought to breed Jealousie and Fears of Encroachments upon the Right of our Soveraignty on these Seas on our Plantations Sea-port Towns and our Inward and Outward Trade and Comerce on the Rights and Priviledges of our Neighbours who for these many Ages stood as our Bulwarks and Banks against the swellings of this ambitious and active Nation never so powerful as now That his strengthening and manning his Sea-port-Towns ought to be taken notice of his turning out of all Protestant Officers from off his Ships The Sums of Money he returns to Rome the Prayers they make for his Designs there the unconcernedness that Rome and other Popish Neighbours are in touching his vast Preparations The strong Leagues he makes with Swedeland and Denmark and with other Princes wherein he strives to prevent us All these Considerations I say should make us quickly to Re-unite among our selves Prince and People Dissenters and Protestants and I dare say if a War were thought fit to be made with France in Vnion with our Neighbours there would be no better means to Re-unite us all for this is the grand Plot of all other Plots to keep us still disunited to open a gap and inlet in our Body for a Foreigner Yet after all knowing that the main difficulty will still lie herein to perswade us that the French are not so much our Friends as we believe them to be and fearing we should be thought to wrong that Nation rashly or groundless I will more particularly quote some of the Authors of the French Politick's Policies which he proposes to his King and will confirm by many Secret and Publick Transactions and Matters Fact that in their continual Practice they do follow these Maximes I will not insist on the means he offers of enslaving his own Country let them look to that of raising more the Nobilities power over the People of devesting of the Parliaments Prerogatives to invest the King therewith of bringing down the Clergy that he make the Leeches of the Publick Revenue disgorge Let him I say suggest means of Arming at Sea without charge to the Crown of improving of Trade and the Colonies and filling of the Kings Coffers But what hath he to do to be a Pedagogue to his Ambitious Prince for to inslave other free Nations that have nothing to do with him This Politician then tells his King That Spain is slow and stupid and are not sensible of any smooth trick he may put upon 'em but only of Affronts upon the Punctilio of Honour yield 'em in that a little He incites his Master to fill Portugal with Soldiers to act in due time and that the French Queen her self ought to second this by her Friends in Spain He advises him to sow Divisions 'twixt the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and the English on the other side To bridle Spain and set these Nations to weaken and undermine each other Let the King endeavour saith he to break their Leagues and Allies the one from the other by feeding them with promises of imaginary supplies on that condition and of joyning the French Fleet to theirs but they must have Orders to Act but for a shew and not in earnest Now he comes to propose the ways of undermining England And first he calls her Perfidious and without Faith or Trust. That France ought to make no Treaty or Peace with her but on advantagious and ambiguous terms yet he wishes his Master to dissemble with England for to devour her the last He then begins to declare by what Artificers this King must be brought to conceive Jealousies of his English Subjects and Parliament and the Parliament likewise of the King and to bring about that they may not abide the one the other nor close one with the other In keeping the English thus in Feudes among themselves saith he the French will have time to push the Wheel of their Interest forward and promote their own Designs abroad and against us without controul or suspicion and then it will be easie enough to find a pretence to break openly with us either on the account of the Title of France we take and that the King of England must be put to it to renounce the same as Queen Elizabeth forced Francis the Second of France and Queen Mary of Scotland to quit the Title of England they put in the Stile c. or else to pick a Quarrel on the Point of the Precedency of our Ambassadors Then he comes to shew after what manner France must seize on Scotland seeing that thence first sprung the Fire as he says that set England on a Flame Then he doubts not but that Ireland will carry things very far of it self Afterwards that Sects must be set at variance one English with another by which means Germany and the Seventeen Provinces were put to Confusion That the King of England must be made a Favourer of the Catholicks and Letters to be framed which must be interpreted for the proving of it Then that the Hollander must be flattered that the French will make the Trade fall from England into their hands That Belle Isle or the Island of Rhe may be given to the Knights of Maltha who must demand of England to restore the Commanderies and Benefices they formerly had here But this Author finding that his Master would be too much fettered by seeking out Pretences of Right to Countreys tells him plainly that he needs such and such places more and that 's reason enough for their Conscience He needs saith he to get Strasburg the French Comty the State of Milan and of Gene Portolongone and Piombin for to reduce Suisserland Savoy Tuscany Madera Parma and Rome it self that Sardinia Naples and Sicily would follow of themselves But that in fine Fontaraby Navarr Majorca and Minorca would fit him mighty well toward his Universal Monarchy Undertaking but he 's a Fool could not he have put him on the Conquering of Spain at his first step and so all these same subordinate States would fall to him by course Being then in Employ at the French Court we were told that his Majesty
matter to dispossess the English where once they had got footing yet was it easie enough to disseise and unroost others either by Force or Treaty as they did justly enough by that of Vervins yet now the Tables are turn'd for they once understanding that Spain is brought upon her knees the Conquest of that and England will not cost much time nor pains The Balance being now removed their Forces augment daily and like a violent Inundation carry all before them It 's true this is yet impossible if England do not stand neuter while other Nations are entering into more than a Triple League which to effect the one and hinder the other they turn every stone they embarrass all Affairs they support the Intrigue with a thousand hopes and those hopes with a profuse expence of Treasure which forceth a passage through those fordid Souls whose sole Interest is their private Gain and Advantage And that which is most surprizing is this they engage the Favourites who are Lords of th' Ascendant at Court or elsewhere and at this rate believe themselves potent enough to give what Laws they please to all politick Transactions if so be the true Interest give ground unto the false which is cheating changeable and infallibly destructive to them that do embrace it And by these means they of late cut the Gordian Knot of that Triple League as if they were cock-sure beforehand of their designs and their business were already done unto their hands Pomponne was dispatch'd into Swedeland to disengage that Crown from the League by the golden promises of Conquests Pensions and Presents which will go very far in a poor Countrey and remove whatever Obstacle stands in his way to the Empire of all Europe The worst is that in France at those times they did publish this Negotiation branding England with the goodly Names of Unconstant and Perfidious Which brings to my mind a story of the Viscount of Narbonne who told an Englishman That six hundred Tun of Wine and a Pension had quickly sent them back again to England The other answering It was a Tribute and no Pension This was in the Reign of Lewis XI who disengaged England from succouring the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretaigne The Jest was biting but 't is the usual Coyn wherewith France pays such whom it openly flatters that so she may if possible ruin and strangle them the more cunningly A League with England blocks up the Spanish Havens so faith du Plessis and the French are hot and intent upon it Truth is the Daughter of Time and Time must discover the events of this Maxim Onely let me add by the way that if France cannot prevail with England to do this Jobb for her she will tack about and treat with Spain upon other terms that relinquishing the Spanish Netherlands she shall be recompenced more abundantly with the Spoils of some other parts of Europe which France will conquer for her We will unriddle this Mystery and let England seribusly consider Castillon in his Embassie for Francis I. writing from London adviseth his Master to a League with Spain against England For saith he I would ever counsel your Majesty to quit other designs and accord with Spain and to give this Kingdom in preys which may be with more facility and less expence effected than to take Calais for the expence cannot last above one moneth or six weeks at the most Divide England between you and let each take those parts of it which lie most commodious and convenient for him And in the close he subjoyns Your Majesty may keep Wales and Cornwall and Scotland for yourself and leave be sorry remainders unto the Emperour There be three things worthy our observation from this Embassadorâ—s advice The one is that France believed she might cheat Spain into this treacherous Conquest provided Spain would but sacrifice to her Covetousness and Ambition the Low Countries The second is that Spain keeps fast and faithful to the Publick and prefers it before her own private Interest And then lastly because of this Phantastick League England must immediately and infallibly be conquer'd as soon as invaded especially let her be once abandon'd of her Allies and that France have brought Spain and Holland upon their knees and hath united their scattered disjoynted Naval Forces with her own I trust my Sentiments are plain so plain that the meanest Capacity can comprehend me Alliances betwixt Crowns bring little profit to the People This is visible in the Matches between the two Royal Houses of Prance and England for no sooner was Henrietta Maria wedded unto King Charles but State Interest and the Capricious Humours of the Favourites interrupted that Peace which a long time before had continued between both Kingdoms and by the Marriage was sworn to be perpetuated Experience also of what had past might have render'd Spain more advised and to have avoided that snare into which she ran through false Maxims with a great deal of Joy The onely quote one passage out of the Memoirs of the Duke of Sully he then writing to Henry IV. about his Intrigues with spain tells him That the growth of one Prince is the diminution of another that no Parentage Affinities Leagues Peace Treaties Agreements Oaths or reciprocal Promises could ever yield sufficient Precautions for time to come against Interest of State I could wish this Memoir affixed on the Cabinet of Madrid for their future Reformation and that in time to come they would take other Measures sith Lewis XIV adheres most pertinaciously to the Maxims of Sully and that after a Treaty sworn with the greatest seriousness and solemnity and a Cession of all Rights made and verified in due form of Law For instead of observing it they are now debating other Rights and demand an hundred things which being refused they take up Arms and proceed to the worst Acts of Hostility leaving us without hopes of any Calm to follow upon this Storm which menaceth with an universal Deluge all the Netherlands Give me leave to subjoyn one important Advice unto England The Right of Edward III. saith Laboureur is not worth the mentioning were it not to tell the world how unrighteous the English are in their pretentions to it and to manifest what necessity lieth on us to keep that Nation at a bay at a distance from us which is naturally quarrelsom born our Enemy and that will borrow Assistance whereever she can get it and take up any the least pretext in the world to subdue and ruine us Robert Abbot of La Celle reproach'd an English Prelate with this that his Countrymen in their Inclinations resembled that Element which did encompass them that is to say they were cruel proud unconstant and seditious These are noble Elogies indeed conferr'd upon your Friends Monsieur in a time of perfect peace nay upon your best and most potent Friends to whom you have in this present Juncture of Affairs your Recourse and who are guilty of this
his Kingdom by a Competitor and applying himself to one of their Kings for Assistance could get none other Answer than this That the League was made with the King of England and his State but he being no longer King of England France could not without violating the Articles of that League imploy their Arms against him who was then actually possessed of the Crown They discharged themselves of him very handsomly and 't was a fine piece of Raillery God forbid we should be misinterpreted to give these as sawcy Omens that which we give as plain and sincere Items not to rely upon the French Amity which will prove a broken reed in case of need as former and later Examples convince us Yet this Fear is groundless in our days thanks be to God for Charles is a Prince so August of so much Justice and withall so well acquainted with the World as to that point that he will not neglect the Glory redounding to him from those Victories he may atchieve with a wet Finger by treading in the Footsteps of his renowned Ancestours Above all it 's then most needful to use such means when as a Sovereign Prince is grown so puissant by his Arms that the progress of his Victories do make him terrible to his Neighbours The Duke of Roan gives the same Advice in his Interest of Princes Thus I have endeavoured to lay open Monsiuer and his Policies if our Eyes will be but open to see ' em And though we have proposed such ways and measures of attacquing the French in part of their own Dominions which may not be deemed to be at this Juncture so practicable as if we should rather go about to weaken 'em by helping their Enemies and our Allies yet that is an Executive part and fitter for other persons to direct and prescribe Our Design here being onely to make such an Answer as we thought the fittest to brow-beat that domineering Nation we judged that the aptest and shortest way to refute their Contumelies and shallow Pretensions on England was plainly to raise a Counter-battery of other Pretensions on France which are more grounded to speak to them like Britains or old Englishmen to borrow some strong Arguments ad hominem from both the Edwards Quiver to manifest that we are not so weak as to stand a scanning it with 'em Scholar-like with a weak Pen but rather Man-like to shew that we are more ready to make an Answer with our Swords and with the point of it to prick this Bladder of Ambition which so vainly puffs 'em up in conceit above their Neighbours whom they so presumptuously despise slander and would trample under as if they forgot that the English are the same when e're put to it that they felt 'em to be at Poictiers at Guyenne and many other places in France in the days of old But if they or any of them in England will take offence at any thing that 's said here we say 't is but a Retaliation to their Writers If they say that their Writers spoke but their private sense then let this pass for such another piece For I protest no publick or private person ever moved me to it but the meer disinterested Affection I bear to my Countrey and I am so far from having any particular grudge against the French on any account such as the Common People usually have they know not why that I declare they have been far more just and grateful to me than England it self But let that pass and if the French will or must own that the French Politician and these other Defamatory Memoirs came from the Closet of publick persons and were spirited and are followed by such in their present courses we Englishmen do likewise for our parts whatever has been here said by way of Argument and to shew Frenchmen that we want neither Eyes Feeling nor Courage submissively and wholly leave it to our Sovereign and his Counsellors to return a more fit and publick Answer to France in this point in their own due time For we are not unsensible that those that sit in eminent places have a larger and clearer prospect of things than others so that the word of Command and Motion is to be always expected from them as from the head but sometimes persons that stand on a far lower ground may have a more particular knowledge of some Gaps and Precipices which are just within their own reach and precinct And even a Courrier or Scout may without reflexion to his Generals make a report touching the matters of fact he has observed in his course on the borders of the Enemy and also what he thinks of their next Motions by what he hath heard or seen among themselves FINIS ☞ The Jesuit's Catechism according to St. Ignatius Loyola for the instructing and strengthening of all those which are weak in that Faith wherein the impiety of their Principles perniciousness of their Doctrines and iniquity of their Practices are declared Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange in Quarto Price 1 s. ☞ Humane Prudence Or the Art by which a Man may raise Himself and Fortune to Grandeur By A. B. sold by Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhil price 1 s.
THE POLITICIAN DISCOVERED OR CONSIDERATIONS Of the late Pretensions That FRANCE Claims to ENGLAND and IRELAND and her DESIGNS and PLOTS in Order thereunto In Two Serious DISCOURSES By a True Protestant and Well-wisher of his Countrey LONDON Printed for and are to be sold by Langley Curtis in Goat-Court on Ludgate-hill 1681. THE French Politician Found Out THE FIRST DISCOURSE RIbier Du Chastelet The Author of the French Politician and other Libellers in France have had the Confidence of late to pour out such a torrent of Injuries shallow Pretensions and Titles to England that a Subject long acquainted with their Ways thought himself bound in Duty and Faithfulness to his King and Countrey humbly to lay some of his Observations before them whereby it may possibly appear that France is not so much our Friend as she of late pretended That these Pretensions of hers are not the meer Academick Notions of some private Speculatist but the sense of their Rulers that they do but watch their Opportunity to put these and other Claims into Execution against us And therefore if this be in some manner made manifest that we can never have a fitter opportunity than now to be before-hand with them in entring into a Confederacy and Arms if need be with our Neighbours against these Common Enemies least when they have too much weakened the rest they become too strong for us alone especially at Sea Let 's then observe That it hath been of late a Practice of France to make use of such Title-Broachers as her Trumpets and Heraulds a little before she 's resolved to invade any Countrey to publish some Right forsooth to those Nations whom next she intends to set upon against Right and Reason thereby to raise the Valour of her own Men with the speciousness of Justice in their Vndertaking to divide the Minds and Resolutions of some on the future Enemies side to suspend also the hands of her Neighbours from intermeddling in a Quarrel which seems so plausible or at least so doubtful and that surely France think they cannot be unjust or rash in Actions whereof she is ready to give such a fair Accompt to the World before-hand And it is Prudence first to see what her Adversaries will answer her so say they And thus France leaving the Matter dormant for a while as if she thought no more of it before or as soon as her Adverse Party makes an Answer to her Manifesto she suddenly and unexpectedly comes and makes her Reply with her Sword there 's that she would be at from the very beginning let your Defence to her claim be never so strong and just Tush that was but an Amusement and her Inter Arma silent Leges scorns to be bawked with such Ponctilio's All observing Persons might be furnished with Proofs enough of this Maxime in the late Conduct of France toward her Neighbours but here are some whereof I had a nearer occasion than many to know the particulars Cardinal Richelieu who as it is known first laid the Design of making his Master the Supream Monarch of all Christendom before he attackt Spain in order thereunto encourages Cassan to write his Book of the Pretensions of France upon all or most of the Kingdoms and Principalities of Europe which he goes about to prove of each one in particular either by former Conquest by Alliances and Successions by Clauses in Treaties and such other obsolete Titles However this Pretension Writer so tickled the French Ambition and gave such seeming Colours to those Designs they would be upon otherwise had they no ground at all that the Cardinal ordered a present of Sixteen thousand Livers to be given to that Author and so sent his Generals to go and pursue with the Sword these goodly Claims and forgotten Inheritance of the French Kings Arroy Du Puy D' Aubery and others had no worse recompence and were set on before these late Wars against Germany and Flanders for to forge Titles to these Countries their Master had with himself determined to invade They have done it however but were smartly answered by Lisola and Ramos and though Monsieur D' Ambrun bragg'd then at Madrid that Ramos was the only Man Spain had to maintain its Interest upon the point of the Devolution but that the King of France could make out his Right at the Head of Sixty thousand Lawyers yet his Master scorning to stand to make good this French Gasconade rather chose to speak at the Head of more than Sixty thousand Armed Men While his Ambassadors were thus drolling and cajolling with their unwary Neighbours and Amusing them with fair Pretences and Promises of Proving their Right by Lawyers and Mediators But alas with France it is too scrupulous a Nicety so to depend on the Decisions at the Bar or on those at Munster Breda or Nimeguen either her King will plead his Rights but with the Mouths of his Cannons bravely Alexander like and he 's told he hath more Right to all Europe than this Young Grecian had to Asia For Patru in his New Law Book left this on Record as a perpetual Maxime to be followed by France which he oft before maintained in open Parliament That the Word Kingdom with them doth comprehend generally all the Lands Principalities and Dominions which Fortune Success and the Valour of the French Monarchs can add to the Sacred Subjection of the Flower de Luce. And as Rivers and Rivolets by entring into the Sea lose themselves presently with all their particular qualities as soon as they are incorporated to the Noble Ocean so all conquered Provinces and Nations do lose their peculiar Names Priviledges and Prerogatives to be made Members of the First Monarchy of the VVorld and of its Laws and Privileges Pray tell me where this Maxime will not reach or be made to stretch rather For as the Habit in any unjust Course will mortifie the remorse and check the Sense of all other Law that may dictate the contrary so France by a long practice of following these boundless Maximes is become as it were accustomed to think that her Conquests must be as large as her Ambition and that those Nations do really belong to her she and her Mercenary Pens had but a Fancy of Right unto in the beginning But what of all this you 'll say these are but general Presumptions and Jealousies when France puts in no Claim against England I never heard of any I can't fancy which way Then hear further The fore-mentioned Ribier among the rest sets out this Title of France to the English Crown as you may more fully see in his French Book and in the following Discourse And one is in right of the Dolphin Lewis Son to Philip Augustus who by the Popes means and of some of the Rebelling Lords entred and was Crowned here in England and ravaged here a good while designing by a general Massacre of all the English Princes and Peers to shorten his Conquest till one of his French
is to send out Sinons or pretended Fugitives which are forsooth banished from their Court yet these are in a secret Intelligence with them to send to 'em all Foreign Intelligences by seeming to betray France to that Nation whereunto they fly Thus have we known and seen Monsieur Gourville to be banisht as it were upon the account of Foucquet to Brussells Madrid and the Hague There to screw himself into favour he communicated to 'em some empty Secrets to hide from them the true State of Affairs of France His Couriers did seemingly go from Paris to Flanders and Holland and backward again and in this Hurry Course and Intercourse he fed the Spaniards but with Chymera's and sent an Accompt of their real Designs into France But after all when this Impostor was found out by the Spaniard he was as heartily wellcommed at Paris as if no grudge had ever been and from Intendant of the Prince of Conde's he was received into an inner favour I could mention the Guizes in former times who were banisht to gull the Protestants and some of late sent into England and perhaps the Earl of S. who in their Language makes sixteen is this last month fled hither into England upon no other occasion 4. What should I run over the particulars I above promised to demonstrate when all observing persons may prove them to themselves When his late breaches of the Treaties of the Pyrenees of Breda of Westphalia and of Nimeguen do shew that France values no otherwise such Ties than Lisander did the solemnest Oaths that is to deceive men thereby and to get a fit opportunity of breaking them to his advantage But we intend to set forth shortly an Abstract of the Treaties of France with the House of Austria in this last Century and the Reasons of the Alternative Growth and Decline of each of these and therein it will from the words of the Treaties and Impartial Historians appear how far the French are to be trusted to in this point of Transactions and Covenants 5. Now as to the use they may make of Emissaries and Pensioners abroad to make Factions in the Neighbouring Courts the clear-sighted know that Monsieur Vaubrun was sent into Germany but for to stir Serin and Ragotzi against the House of Austria Each one may perceive that the Prince Furstemburg who is in Bavaria does act in consort with the other Furstemberg that resides in France And that Monsieur Gremonville was the occasion of the Revolt in Hungary for which and several other Divisions he wrought in Vienna he was expell'd more civilly than he deserved The Archbishop of Gnesne and the Mareschal Sobieski were the Pensioners that France bragg'd of in the Court of Poland and of some also in ours which could be named but that a respectful tenderness for my Countrymen makes me more reserved and shall shut them up in my own Breast hoping they have since repented of such base and unnatural Treacheries toward their generous and gracious King and dear Countrey especially knowing some of 'em to be dead and others almost dying which were mentioned in Parliament 6. Now touching French Princesses they match out to have occasion thereby to divide their Neighbours God forbid that I should think that all the Ladies of that Rank were Fredegonde Brunehaut or Helena like but that as this later was the occasion of the subtle Grecians getting foot into the Trojan Territories and of imbroyling and ravaging it by long Wars so I observed that most commonly those French Princesses are Engines of State to carry along with 'em abroad Corresponding Colonies of that restless ambitious and intriguing Nation to make the interest of that Court where they go to bend to that of their Native Countrey which they ever love best I 'll but glance at Examples The very memory of Mary of Nevers is odious in Poland by whose occasion that Country was brought into such inward Disturbances and Factions that not long ago King Cazimir himself at last was fain to quit the Crown for a quiet Coole in the Abbey of St. Germain at Paris But the observant in Publick Affairs may find fresh Presidents hereof in Tuscany Portugal and perhaps England not long since and I am affraid that Lady they of late sent to Spain will be the pretence in time to come of making more Demands than that of Mastrick which they would now go about 7. Hitherto we have toucht of the Causes or Instruments the French do make use of now of the Effect which is Divisions in Foreign Courts either to cut out work for such at home that they may be no Obstacle to the Carier of the French Conquests or to make a Breach among us at which they may creep in more easily For the proof hereof for brevities sake I 'll refer you to what I hinted above touching the Divisions the French Emissaries wrought in Poland in and before the year 71 and likewise about and before that time in Germany when their Agents swarmed there to sow those Seeds of War which we have since seen sprung up to such a height as cannot be yet cut down nor extirpated possibly by all the hands in Europe Colbert the Junior as I mention'd before not long since carried away Corn and Coin viz. Thirty thousand Crowns into Portugal by way of Loan as it were to raise the Countrey against the Spaniard and so make a Diversion from Flanders But the Instructions and Covenants whereby the French required some Sea-port Towns on the Coast of Spain to be given to themselves as I warrant you they 'll serve no Friend for nothing these I say were seized in another Ship that straggled into the Spaniards Nett where all the Mine was discovered Such was the Disturbances they wrought in Lorrain that the late Duke somewhat guilty thereof himself dolefully cried out That the Neighbourhood of France was a smoke that would drive him out of his own Countrey and Estate What should I mention the Jealousies Dissentions and Divisions which we with tears behold here to be wrought by them in our England and its Dependants when any unbyass'd considering person may perceive that they strive to repeat the Scenes of the late Intestine Tragedy wherein that Wicked French Embassadour Monsieur de Thou by his Agents confessed and repented too late to have acted here the Prologue by traducing blasting and heightning in that moderate Royal Martyr a propensity to Popery forsooth by mis-representing the King to the People the People and Parliament to the King by unsuspected Instruments by contriving means to divide the unwary Protestants about Formalities and petit Differences about Indifferent Things wherein it is impossible to unite 'em in no otherwise than by Charity Meekness and Patience for Persecution is observed to increase Proselites and make 'em more zealous and vertuous which otherwise without opposition would languish and decay but if the work be of God as Gamaliel said that cannot be destroyed by Men by all
art or power When by such Artifices the French and Jesuit had blinded some Dissenting Zealots with specious Pretences of removing evil Councellors and of some Incroachments then things being ripe the greedy Lawless Souldier is brought on the Stage to make our King and People bleed together without seeing the Hook but too late when at first moderate and impartial Counsels might have healed things if they might be suffered to come to an understanding and to touch the Root of the Disease Sed quid haec ingrata revolvo But remember in a word That whether Times tend to a further Dis-union of Spirits or to a thorow Union yet in either Juncture the Judgment of God and Man will soon find out those base Sinons those Incendiaries those French Pensioners and Lawless Statesmen that seek to divide the good Father and his poor Children and to rent miserably their own Mothers Bowels for private ends by unworthy Policies And those Persons or Party whatever it be which recede most from French Devices and Popish Forms and shall in their plain meaning and counsels tend but to close to the honest Fundamental Laws of their Countrey and of the Gospel after a simple loyal and charitable Interpretation they and only they shall prevail and be in request with their King and Countrey at the long Run for that God will be above Man In fine I refer to the Reader to judge and to our Superiors to determine Whether the mean proposed in the following Discourse which lay by me be so seasonable or practicable which however I meant to be of this use to make a Diversion of all Englishmens inward bitterness and choller against a more fit Object and Enemy that they may cease to look upon one another with a sharp Eye but look off rather towards abroad whence the Spring of our Divisions come viz. from France and Rome THE French Politician FOUND OUT THat the greatest dangers of Spain were from England by reason of our power at Sea and that we could block up the Spanish Ports at pleasure this our Monsieur believed as firmly as if it had been an Article of his Creed and that the Plot as he had laid it in its success was Infallible 'T is a Truth But if it were some years ago the Interest of this Crown to accord to that Maxim Time and the present weaknesses of Spain sinking under its own burdens have turn'd the Ballance and made it impracticable The Face and State of Affairs are now very much changed Henry the Seventh was too nearly allied with the House of Burgundy and Ferdinand the Catholic not to have oppos'd the Cabals which were then formed against Mary to bereave her of the Low-Countries His Son Henry the Eighth followed the same Counsels and if at any times Charles the Fifth was travers'd by him it arose from that just Apprehension he had of his growing Grandeurs Fortune being more favourable to him than to Francis the First whose loss had been a fair Step unto his own Queen Elizabeth harboured the same Jealousies for Spain puffed up with a long continued course of prosperous successes was not arriv'd to that pitch of Declension we see it now adays And if Charles the First beheld with an Eye of Envy the progress of France Charles the Second might do it also his Fear being much more warrantable because that Kingdom is grown more powerful more formidable than when his Father reigned And there be Arguments of Glory Revenge and Interest for my Assertion all which according to the best of my judgment are strictly interwoven one within the other Glory demands the continuance of the triple League because this had twice bridled a Prince who had slip'd out of it and who without this Restraint would have over-run all bounds by reason of his unmeasurable Ambition the sole and unvariable Rule of all his Undertakings Besides it can be no dishonour unto England to be reproach'd of France as heretofore of slackness in assisting her and that we loved to prolong and foment her Civil Wars if not to make them perpetual Revenge is yet another and stronger Motive to invigorate us in our conduct whether you reflect upon what is past or on things present For the present 't is well known that the French promises are only tendred us for the better inabling them to play their own Game and the mischiefs they are now a brewing should now inspire us with a greater abhorrency of their greater masqued Villanies Moreover those brave Methods propounded by our French Politician for the subversion of this Kingdom whose Glory Eclipseth theirs are no longer with any patience to be endured Add farther that injurious manner wherewith they treat England because it carries the Ballance of Europe and supports the Oppressed against their Violence and Tyranny And could we not remember those Invectives wherewith they have wounded the whole Nation yet this should be considered that they never spared the Sacred persons of our Princes Ribier is pleas'd to strew these sweet Flowers upon Henry the Eighth viz. That he was the most Infidel and unconstant Prince of his Age full of Tentation and Double dealing whose Soul Symboliz'd with the Seas environing his Island And the fore-mentioned Author of the French Politicks adviseth that the King now reigning should be voic'd a Roman Catholic thereby to procure him his Subjects hatred and to Augment it be feigned Letters written to some of the leading Protestant Lords to render them suspected and procure their Ruin by a Maxim which with extream imprudence they themselves have divulged to the World These Counsels and Invectives were all forged by them because Henry would not turn the Scales wholly of their side to destroy Spain and England in consequence thereof which without this invincible Obstruction must have been together by the same Torrent overwhelmed And as to what concerns Charles the Second that general interest in which insensibly he is engaged affords Alliment to a damn'd Plot which is by them secretly carried on against him But I pass this by and come to the Question under debate And it is this That the Consideratian of what is past should so far influence a potent Prince who hath his Sword in his hands as to carve out his own satisfactions from them whose insensibleness of doing wrongs raiseth them to such a degree of Insolence as to deride us Aquitain Normandy and their dependant Provinces together with Guysnes Ardres Bouloign and Calais ancient Demeans of the Crown of England are such important pieces and their Conquest so easie that they will surrender themselves as soon as England shall seriously invade them provided that the Obligation of the League and Powers composing it remain firm and inviolable and that from a meer defensive War we become Aggressors and despoil him of those Trophies who after the glorious Example of his Ancestors hath enlarg'd the bounds of his own Dominions on the wrack and losses of his Neighbours But and if