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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26186	The lives of all the princes of Orange, from William the Great, founder of the Common-wealth of the United Provinces written in French by the Baron Maurier, in the year 1682, and published at Paris, by order of the French King ; to which is added the life of His present Majesty King William the Third, from his birth to his landing in England, by Mr. Thomas Brown ; together with all the princes heads taken from original draughts.; Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Hollande et des autres Provinces-Unies. English	Aubery du Maurier, Louis, 1609-1687.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.	1693 (1693)	Wing A4184; ESTC R22622	169,982	381

THE LIVES Of all the Princes of Orange FROM WILLIAM the Great Founder of the Common-wealth of the United Provinces Written in French by the Baron Maurier in the Year 1682 and published at Paris by Order of the French King To which is added the Life of His Present Majesty King William the Third from His Birth to His Landing in England By Mr. Thomas Brown Together with all the Princes Heads taken from Original Draughts Chara Deo Soboles Virgil. LONDON Printed for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. To his Honoured Friend THOMAS CHAMBERS OF Hanworth Esq SIR THough I know what a just aversion you have to the common strain of Dedications yet with the usual assurance of an Authour of the Town I have presumed to inscribe this History to you so much too powerful was either my gratitude or my interest for the Complaisance I ought to have had for your Modesty As I have received too many Obligations at your hands not to endeavour at some sort of a requital if Addresses of this Nature don't rather serve to increase the Debt than to acquit it so I am too well acquainted with your Temper to offer at any thing that may look like Flattery 'T is I confess somewhat hard to be avoided upon these occasions and few Patrons quarrel with the poor Slaves that make these Applications to them for being too liberal of their Incense But you need not fear any such dreadful Entertainment from me For contrary to the received Practise of all my Predecessors in Dedication I intend not to say one Word in your Praise Nay what is more surprizing instead of being a Panegyrist I here come publickly to reproach you and that freedom as gross as it looks I know you will much sooner excuse than being praised I must therefore though it is much against my inclination to be the bearer of ill News take the boldness to inform you that the World speaks very strange things of you and such as I am afraid you will find it a difficult matter to justifie without the affectation of being singular It complains in the first place that in a time of Universal perfidiousness and degeneracy when the profession of Friendship serves only to usher in some piece of Treachery with a better grace you have the opiniatreté to be sincere and undesigning that at an Age wherein others of your quality wholly abandon themselves to their pleasures and generously neglect the pursuit of every thing besides you are so ill-natured as to use them only en passant and cannot be brought to allow that Learning sits ill upon a Gentleman and lastly that amidst so vast a Wealth which uses to have no other effect upon the rest of Mankind but either to make them neglect themselves or despise others you obstinately continue to be unfashionably virtuous and condescending I could tell you of several other objections of the like terrible importance that are frequently made against you but as by these I have mention'd you may sufficiently judge what malicious Worlds thinks of you I shall forbear to recount the rest And now Sir if I may be permitted to speak something of the following Translation I hope it is a Present not altogether unworthy of your Acceptance There is this at least to be said in the behalf of it which very few done out of the same Language can pretend to and that is the extream Scarcity as well as Excellence of the Original there being as far as I can inform my self not above four or five of them in England That very Book which my Friends and I made use of for you must give me leave here to inform you that I have but a small share in this performance and is now in the Possession of a Learned Gentleman had formerly passed the Hands of King Charles the Second for he having received a mighty Character of it was so impatient to read it over that he could not stay to be furnished with one of them from France but sent to borrow this As for the Author though I ingenuously own that I am so uncharitable to his Country-men as to believe they are for the general part as unfit to write History as Dutch-men are to write Epic Poems for Dutch Epic Poetry is down-right History disguised with Metre and French History as far as Fiction will make it so is down-right Poetry yet he has happily escaped the Genius of the rest of his Nation who are so apt to run out into strange Love-adventures and other Chimera's even upon the most solemn occasions and as appears by his Writings was a Person of great Quality Probity and Experience If he has any fault 't is this that he is now and then too much upon the Narrative but his Old-Age will excuse that Infirmity As for the rest he was a passionate Lover of Truth and an Adorer of true Merit where-ever he found it whether in Catholic or Hugonot Difference in Religion not being able to prepossess him to any Man's disadvantage if he were otherwise valuable In short he has discovered several important Matters of State which till he revealed them were Mysteries to all the World and I shall but do him justice when I say that he has joyned the unaffected Simplicity of Philip de Comines to the Veracity of the great Thuanus The last Life has been done by a modern Hand but though it does not come up to the former seems to be written with great Impartiality and Freedom I have thus given you a short Account of the Author It now remains that I should conclude which I find I must do in a different manner from most Dedications For whereas they generally end with some devout Wishes for the Person to whom they address you have been so eminently well treated both by Nature and Fortune that I can wish you nothing but what you possess already Therefore not altogether to depart from so ancient and received a Custom I will pray but it shall be for my self who need it most My first Petition is that you would be pleased to forgive all the defects in the Translation I mean in my own Part of it and my second that when your Candor has forgiven them you would once more employ it and pardorn this Presumption in Sir Your most Humble and Most Obliged Servant T. Brown The TABLE A. DUke of Alva sent to succeed the Dutchess in the Government of the Low Countreys page 19. Establishes a Councel of Twelve called the Councel of Blood p. 20 21. The Arch-Duke Brother to the Emperour Rodolphus chosen Governour of the Netherlands p. 64. Amsterdam surrendred to the States p. 65. Duke of Anjou invited into Holland p. 73. Retires into France and dies p. 113. Arminius and Gomarus their Quarrel p. 160 161 c. B. BArnevelt's Story p. 156 157 c. Bon besieged p. 240 241. And taken p. 242. Marquess de Bellefonds banished by the French King p. 251.

moreover the mighty esteem they had of so glorious an Alliance and their sincere resolution to cultivate the ancient Friendship and good Correspondence which had always been and was between his Britanic Majesty and them This answer arriving at London on the 14t h of November which was his Highness's Birth-day the Marriage was celebrated at eleven at night but with so little noise that the People knew nothing of it till the next morning when they gave all public testimonies of their joy by Ringing of Bells and Bone fires But amidst all this rejoycing and feasting the Prince knowing how necessary his presence was in Holland made all possible expedition to arrive thither He parted from London on the 29th of November with his Princess and landed at Terheyde from whence he went to Hounslaerdyk where they tarried some time till they made their public Entry into the Hague which was a few days after performed with extraordinary Magnificence But I pass all these ceremonies over in silence in order to come to matters of greater importance Towards the beginning of the year 1678 tho it was the midst of Winter the French King made such mighty preparations of War that all Europe was alarmed at them but particularly Holland and the Consederates This made the King of Great Britain send the Earl of Feversham to his Most Christian Majesty with a project of Peace by which Charleroy Aeth Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Guillain and some other Towns were to be surrendred to the Spaniards and the King of France to keep all the Franche-Comte in his possession but he would not hearken to it and as for the King of England he was as unwilling to abate any thing in his propositions Which obliged his Britannic Majesty to sent orders to my Lord Hyde his Ambassador at Nimeguen to make a strict alliance with the States-General which being concluded he dispatched My Lord Montague into France to press the King to accept his terms and gave out Commissions at the same time for raising an Army but the French King rejected these conditions of Peace and made great provisions for the war on all sides but especially in his new acquisitions in the Low Countries Upon which the King of England recalled the Troops he had in the service of France which besides their other ill treatment were sent home without their pay The King of Great Britain held firm to his resolution and summoning a Parliament communicated to them the late alliance he had made with Holland for the public benefit and repose of Christendom protesting he was resolved to force the French King to a Peace and therefore desired them to furnish him with a summ of Money necessary for such a design The Lower House thanked his Majesty for the great care he took of the Protestant Religion in marrying his Niece to a Protestant Prince beseeching him not to consent to any conditions of Peace with France unless they were better than those at the Pyrenean Treaty To which the King having consented the Commons after a long deliberation resolved to equip a Fleet of Fourscore and ten Men of War and to raise an Army of 29870 Land Men and nominated Commissioners to compute the expence Whilst these things lay under debate the French King who was sensible what designs the Consederates were forming against him resolved to render them all ineffectual by being before hand with them For this effect he left Paris on the 7th of February and marching by the side of Mets entred Flanders no one being able to determine where the storm would fail All the World was of opinion that the design was upon Mons or Namur or some other place of like importance and Ghent which never expected to be attack'd had so weakned itsGarrison by drawing out their men and distributing them in other places that the French King who knew this very well sate down before it on the 1st of March with an Army of Threescore orFourscore Thousand men It was impossible for a City of so large a compass which had not above four or five Hundred Soldiers in Garrison besides the Inhabitants to defend themselves long against a vain-glorious Prince who valued the taking of a Half-moon more than the loss of a Thousand men and who by his assaults and batteries had extreamly weaken'd it So Ghent was forced to surrender nine days after it was besieged from thence the Enemy came before Ipres but that City being much stronger than Ghent and besides furnished with a better Garrison the Besiegers met so warm an opposition there and lost so many Officers and Soldiers before they took it that the King put the greatest part of his Army immediately into Garrison and returned to Paris whether he thought his Army sufficiently harrass'd by these two Sieges or whether he thought he had humbled his Enemies enough to incline them now to accept his own proposals of a Peace or lastly whether he was afraid of the English who had sent considerable Forces into Flanders For about this time the D. of Monmouth was arrived at Bruges with three thousand Horse and Foot which the K. of Great Britain had sent to re-inforce the Prince of Orange's Army and the Parliament was so earnestly bent to pursue the War against France that they petitioned the King to declare open War against it promising to stand by him with their lives and fortunes and to furnish him from time to time with sufficient summs to carry on so generous an undertaking In the mean time all the world was astonished to ●…ear that the French King had intirely abandon'd Messina and all Sicily The more able Politicians imagined that now there were no hopes of a Peace since this Prince had abandon'd his Conquests in Italy as he had lately done those in Holland for no other end but that he might the better compass his designs upon Spain and the Empire But others said it was an infallible sign he was not so strong as he pretended to be and that what he had done was rather out of meer necessity than for any other end However it was the Parliament of England were of belief that France was resolved to continue the War in Germany and the Low Countries and therefore to stop his Career granted his Majesty a Poll-bill and by the same Act prohibited the Importation of all French commodities King Charles who was desirous to enter into a League with the Empire Spain and the United Provinces would oblige them to make the same prohibition in relation to French goods in their own respective Dominions But while the Hollanders were demurring upon the last point believing that such a prohibition would ruine their trade an unexpected accident fell out that changed the whole face of affairs The King of France after his return to Paris seeing his Britannic Majesty was resolved to support the Interests of his Nephew the Prince of Orange particularly since his Voyage into England and his Marriage

Troopers who would fly before these Germans as Sheep before a Wolf There happened the like inconvenience to the Swedes for having committed the same fault as the Hollanders because after the Peace of Munster they likewise disbanded the old Troops which had done such great actions and revived the antient Glory of the Goths who had conquered a great part of Europe being so bold as to attack the Elector of Brandenburg and his old Souldiers with their new Levies that never durst maintain their ground against him and were always beaten when he could joyn them so that if by an extraordinary good fortune they had not had so faithful and so mighty a Protector as the French King they had quite lost Pomerania and been sent back to their own cold Countries beyond the Baltick Sea All which shows us that a Prince ought always to keep a large body of old Troops to defend his State which without such a support runs the hazard of becoming a prey to the first Enemy that shall be bold and strong enough to attack it To these two causes of the extremities to which Holland was reduced in 1672 that is to say to the intestine divisions and to the disbanding of the old foreign Souldiers there may a third be likewise added which was the extraordinary and unheard of drowth that happen'd that year for it was so great that the Rhine one of the greatest Rivers in Europe that carries Men of War was so low that the French Troops were able to ford it so the Country being frightned to see itself attacked both by Sea and Land by the powers of France and England united to its ruine was reduced to the utmost despair seeing Heaven conspire to their destruction by taking away those Ramparts which Nature had designed for its preservation The French Army for the reasons before mentioned had penetrated into the very Heart of the Country and 40 places were taken in a small space of time whereas the State thought they might have found work for 20 years these people that were a little too haughty in their prosperity lay then under a terrible consternation almost in the same condition as the Venetians were heretofore when King Lewis the 12th made himself Master of the greatest part of the Territories which they had upon the Continent Being in this despair they were constrained to the last Remedy which was to overflow their Country and breaking down their Dykes to oppose a Sea to the French forces so hindring them from passing further they averted the ruine of the Commonwealth which else had assuredly run its period Heretofore seeing themselves reduced to a like extremity they made use of the same Remedy against the Spanish Army at the Siege of Leyden having succoured the place then at the very point of being lost with an innumerable company of Boats which swum upon the Land which they had overflow'd and then the United Provinces were reduced to so strange circumstances and to such a height of despair that the principal persons amongst them proposed in imitation of the ancient Switzers to burn all their Towns Villages and Castles and to spoyl the Country as much as they could and go on board their Ships to settle themselves in the Indies so to be delivered from the Spanish Tyranny but they had not Vessels enough to transport a fourth part of the people and were unwilling to leave the greater number to the mercy of so pityless an Enemy and for a Motto of the lamentable condition which this Country was then reduced to they engraved upon the Money which they coyned at that time a Vessel without Masts and Sayls tost by the waves and storm with these words Incertum quó fata ferant words which represented the extremity of their condition But to return to the Prince of Orange He appeared at the head of an Army at 22 years old as his Great Grandfather Prince William who was Generalissimo to the Emperour Charles the V. at the same Age and throughout the course of this great War he show'd so much Courage and Conduct both in Sieges and Battels that he had assuredly pass'd the Actions of his Illustrious Ancestors who for 200 years serv'd for a model to the greatest Generals if he had not had the misfortune to be born in the age of a King whose Genius and Power no common forces could stand against I do not design to make an exact Journal of the Actions of his Illustrious Father Prince Henry Frederick since they may be learnt from other Histories but speak of them in general and relate some certain passages not commonly known In the year 1626 he took Oldensell Capital of the Country of Tui●…z in the Neighbourhood of Friezeland and Groninghen and the same year Peter Hein one of his Vice-Admirals in the Bay of Todos los Santos in the Road of St. Salvador took a Spanish Fleet laden with Sugar In the year 1627 he took Grolle before the face of Count Henry de Bergues General of a powerful Spanish Army that could put no succours into it nor make the Prince raise his Siege he being so well entrenched against the Enemies Army At the end of the year 1627 the same Peter Hein mentioned before took the Spanish Silver Fleet near the Isle of Cuba This prize without reckoning the Galeons and Vessels was esteemed at more than twenty Millions there were besides other Riches 356000 Marks of Silver and 300000 Marks of Gold abundance of Pearls Cochinele Jewels Bezoar Musk Ambergreese 250 Chests of Sugar and an infinite number of Stuffs and other merchandizes of great value This Vice-admiral Peter Hein arrived gloriously in Holland in the beginning of the year 1629 which was remarkable by the Conquest of the strong Town of Bolduc where by a Siege that was very long and difficult Prince Henry Frederick show'd by his conduct and valour that he could overcome that which had resisted his Brother Maurice who had heretofore attacqued that important place without success But what was more marvellous was that whilst Prince Henry Frederick lay before the place Count Henry de Bergues having pass'd the River Isell with a great Army ravaged all the Country of Utrecht where he seized upon Amersfort and put Holland into such a consternation that several people counselled the Prince to quit his enterprize upon Bolduc and succor the heart of his Country which was made desolate by the Enemy but he had the constancy to persevere till he had made himself Master of so considerable a Town without being moved by the Councels of his chief Officers or the Lamentations of the People that had been plundered At the same time the Prince by the vigilance and resolution of Otho de Guent Lord of Dieden Governour of Emeric having happily surprized the Town of Wesel where was the Magazine and Artillery of the Spanish Army which obliged Count Henry de Bergues to repass the Issel in all the haste imaginable he gained by this double