Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	french_a	king_n	prince_n	8,899	5	6.0355	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90222	Observations upon the Provinces United. And on the state of France. Written by Sr Thomas Overbury.; Sir Thomas Overbury his observations in his travailes upon the state of the Xvii. Provinces as they stood anno Dom. 1609.	Overbury, Thomas, Sir, 1581-1613.; Pass, Simon van de, 1595?-1647, engraver.	1650 (1650)	Wing O609; Thomason E1317_4; ESTC R203062	13,450	85

flat and betwixt Medow and Marsh thence it begins to rise and become Champion and consequently the people are more quick and spiritfull as the Brabanter Flemming and Wallon The most remarkable place in that side is Antwerp which rose upon the fall or Bruges equally strong and beautiful remaining yet so upon the strength of its former greatness twice spoyled by the Spaniard and the like attempted by the French The Cittadel was built there by the Duke of Alva but renewed by the Prince of Parma after his 18 months besieging it the Town accepting a Castle rather then a Garrison to mingle among them There are yet in the Town of Citizens 30000 fighting men 600 of which kept Watch nightly but they allowed neither Canon upon the Rampier nor Magazins of powder In the Castle are 200 peeces of Ordnance and commonly seven or eight hundred Souldiers Flanders is the best of the seventeen Provinces but the Havens therof are naught OBSERVATIONS On the State of FRANCE Having seen the forme of a Common-Wealth and a Province with the different effects of Warres in them I entred France flourishing with Peace and of Monarchies the most absolute because the King there not only makes Peace and Wars Calls and dissolves Parliaments Pardoneth naturalizeth Innobleth Names the value of money Presseth to the War but even makes Laws and imposes Taxes at his pleasure And all this he doth alone for as for that forme that his Edicts must be authorized by the next Court of Parliament that is the next Court of Soveraign Justice first the Presidents thereof are to be chosen by him and to be put out by him and secondly when they concurre not with the King he passeth any thing without them as hee did the last Edict for the Protestants And for the assembly of the three Estates it is growne now almost as extraordinary as a generall Councell with the losse of which their Liberty fell and when occasion urgeth it is possible for the King to procure that all those that shall be sent thither shall be his Instruments for the Duke of Guise effected as much at the assembly of Bloys The occasion that first procured the King that Supremacy that his Edicts should be Laws was the last Invasion of the English for at that time they possessing two parts of France the three Estates could not assemble whereupon they did then grant that power unto Charls the Seventh during the War And that which made it easie for Lewis the Eleventh and his Successors to continue the same the occasion ceasing was that the Clergy and Gentry did not run the same fortune with the people there as in England for most of the Taxes falling only upon the people the Clergy and Gentrey being forborne were easily induced to leave them to the Kings mercy But the King having got strength upon the Peasants hath been since the bolder to invade part of both their Liberties For the succession of this Monarchy it hath subsisted without intermission these 1200 years under three Races of Kings No Nation hath heretofore done greater things abroad in Palestine and Egypt besides all parts of Europe but for these last forty yeares they have onely made Sallies into Italy and often suffered at home Three hundred years the English afflicted them making two firme Invasions upon them and taking their King prisoner the second Greatnesse of Christendome next the Emperour being then in competition betwixt us and them And to secure themselves against us rather then the house of Austria as it then stood they chuse to marry the Heir of Bretaigne before that of Burgundy And for this last hundred yeares the Spaniard undertaking them hath eaten them out of all but France and endangered that too But for this present France had never as France a more entire greatnesse though it hath often been richer For since the Warre the King is only got aforehand the Countrey is but yet in recovering the Warre having lasted by spaces 32 years and so generally that no man but had an Enemy within three miles and so the Country became Frontier all over Now that which hath made them at this time so largely great at home is their adopting into themselves the lesser adjoyning Nations without destruction or leaving any marke of strangenesse upon them as the Bretons Gascoignes Provincalls and others which are not French towards the which Unions their nature which is easie and harborous to strangers hath done more then any Lawes could have effected but with long time The King as I said enjoying what Lewis the Eleventh did gaine hath the entire Soveraignty in himselfe because he can make the Parliament do what he please or else do what he please without them For the other three Estates The Church is there very rich being estimated to enjoy the third part of the Revenue of France but otherwise nothing so potent as elsewhere partly because the Inquisition is not admitted in France but principally because the Popes ordinary power is much restrayned there by the Liberties which the French Church claymeth Which Liberties do not so much enfranchize the Church it selfe as conferre the Authority the Pope loseth upon the King as first fruits and the disposing of all Spirituall preferments And by reason of this neutrality of Authority the Church men suffer more there then either in England where they wholly depend upon the King or in Spaine and Italy where they wholly subsist by the Pope because the Pope is not able totally to support them and the King takes occasion ever to suppresse them as being not entirely his Subjects and to him they pay yearely both the tenth of all their Tithe and of all their Temporall land The Gentrie are the onely entire Body there which participate with the Prerogatives of the Crown for from it they receive Priviledges above all other men and a kind of limited Regality upon their Tenants besides reall supply to their estates by Governments and Pensions and freedom from Tallies upon their own Lands that is upon their Demaines and whatsoever else they manure by their Servants but so much as they let to Tenants is presently Tallie-able which causeth proportionable abatement in the Rent and in recompence of this they owe the King the Ban and the Arriereban that is to serve him and his Lieutenant 3 Months within the Land at their owne charges And as in Warre they undergo the greatest part of the danger then is their power peremptory above the rest wheras in time of Peace the King is ready to support inferiour persons against them and is glad to see them to waste one another by contention in Law for fear they grow rich because hee foresees that as the Nobility only can do him service so they only misapplyed can doe him harme The Ancient Gentrie of France was most of it consumed in the Warres of Godfrey of Bulloigne and some in those of Saint Lewis because upon their setting out they pawned all their

own without oppressing their Subjects But at this day though the Revenue be thus great and the taxes unsupportable yet do they little more then serve for necessary publick uses For the King of Spain's greatnesse and Neighbourhood forceth the King there to live continually upon his Guard and the treasure which the Spaniard receives from his Indies constraines him to raise his Revenue thus by Taxes so to be able in some proportion to bear up against him for feare else hee should be bought out of all his Confederates and servants For the relation of this State to others It is first to be considered that this part of Christendome is ballanced betwixt the three Kings of Spain France and England as the other part betwixt the Russian the Kings of Poland Sweden and Denmarke For as for Germany which if it were entirely subject to one Monarchy would be terrible to all the rest so being divided betwixt so many Princes and those of so equall power it serves only to ballance it selfe and entertaine easie Warre with the Turke while the Persian with-holds him in a greater And every one of those first three hath his particular strength and his particular weaknesse Spaine hath the advantage of both the rest in Treasure but is defective in Men his Dominions are scattered and the conveyance of his Treasure from the Indies lyes obnoxious to the power of any Nation that is stronger by Sea France abounds with Men lyes close together and hath mony sufficiently England being an Iland is hard to be Invaded abounds with men but wants money to imploy them For their particular weaknesse Spain is to be kept busie in the Low-Countreys France is to bee afflicted with Protestants and England in Ireland England is not able to subsist against any of the other hand to hand but joyned with the Low-Countreys it can give Law to both by Sea and joyned with either of them two it is able to oppresse the third as Henry the Eighth did Now the only entire body in Christendome that makes head against the Spanish Monarchy is France and therefore they say in France that the day of the ruine of France is the Eve of the ruine of England And thereupon England hath ever since the Spanish greatnesse inclined rather to maintain France then to ruine it as when King Francis was taken prisoner the King of England lent Money towards the payment of his Ransome And the late Queen when the Leaguers after the of Duke Guise his death had a designe to Cantonize France though offered a part would not consent So then this reason of State of mutuall preservation conjoyning them England may be counted a sure confederate of France and Holland by reason it partly subsists by it the Protestant Princes of Germany because they have Countenance from it against the house of Austria the Protestant Swissers for Religion and Money the Venetians for protection against the Spaniard in Italy so that all their friends are either Protestants or en clining and whosoever is extream Catholick is their enemy and Factors for the Spanish Monarchy as the Pope the Cardinalls for the most part and totally the Jesuites the hatholick Princes of Germany and the Catholicks of England and Ireland For the Jesuites which are the Ecclesiasti call strength of Christendome France notwithstanding the many late Obligations hath cause to despaire of them for they intending as one Pope so one King to suppresse the Protestants and for the better support of Christendome against the Turke and seeing Spaine the likelier to bring this to passe they follow the neerer probability of effecting their end No addition could make France so dangerous to us as that of our Low-Countreys for so it were worse then if the Spaniard himselfe had them entirely As for their hopes of regaining Italy it concerns the Spaniard immediately rather then us Concerning the state of the Protestants in France during Peace they are protected by their Edict For their two Agents at Court defend the Generall from wrong and their Chambres-impartyes every particular person And if troubles should arise some scattered particulars might be in danger but the main body is safe safe to defend themselves though all France joyne against them and if it break out into Factions the safest because they are both ready and united The particulars of their strength are first their Townes of surety two of which command the River of Loyre Secondly their Situation the greatest part of them lying neer together as Poictou Zaingtongue High Gascoigne Languedoc and Daulphine neer the Sea so consequently fit to receive succours from abroad and remote from Paris so that the quality of an Army is much wasted before it can approach them The third is the sufficiency of their present Governours Bulloigne and Desdeguiers and other second Commanders And for the Princes of the Blood whom the rest may in shew without emulation obey when they come once to open action those which want a party will quickly seeke them The last is the aide they are sure of from forraigne Princes for whosoever are friends to France in generall are more particularly their friends And besides the Protestant party being growne stronger of late as the Low-Countreys and more united as England and Scotland part of that strength reflects upon them and even the King of Spain himself which is Enemy to France in generall would rather give them succour then see them utterly extirpated and yet no Forraign Prince can ever make further use of them then to disturbe France not to invade it himself For as soon as they get an Edict with better conditions they turn head against him that now succored them as they did against us at Newhaven Concerning the proportion of their number they are not above the seventeenth or eighteenth part of the people but of the Gentlemen there are 6000 of the Religion but since the Peace they have increased in people as principally in Paris Normandy and Daulphine but lost in the Gentry which losse comes to passe by reason that the King when he finds any Gent. that wil but hearken tempts him with preferment and those he finds utterly obstinate suppresseth And by such means he hath done them more harm in Peace then both his Predecessors in War For in all their Assemblies he corrupts some of their Ministers to betray their Counsel in hand and of the hundred and sixe thousands Clowns a yeer which he payes the Protestants to entertain their Ministers and pay their Garisons he hath gotten the bestowing of 16000 of them upon what Gentleman of the Religion hee pleaseth whom by that means he moderates if not gaines and besides they were wont to impose upon him their two Deputies which are to stay at Court but now he makes them propose sixe out of which he chuseth the two and by that obligeth those and by notwithstanding all this in some occasions hee makes good use of them too For as towards England hee placeth