brought our Nation under such Convulsions that without the help of kind Heaven must end in a total Dissolution Sed futura nesâ—imus I am My Lord Your Constant and Faithful Servant Paris Decemb. 16. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXVI The Opinion of the French Court concerning the five Persons that made up the Cabal in England in the Year 1671 2. My Lord THE Ministers of this Court are not only the most inquisitive Persons in the World into the Affairs of other Courts but even into the Persons that manage them whose Natures Dispositions Religion Natural and Acquired Abilities as well as Respective Infirmities they endeavour to sift out to the quick that so they may use them or shun them as they find occasion and for this reason it is that they make some Remarks upon them in their Minutes as well as upon the Affairs transacted by them And therefore since the Five Persons who made up the Cabal in England a few years ago and who your Lordship may remember were the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale the Earls of Shaftsbury and Arlington and the Lord Treasurer Clifford were very distinguishable for the Stations they were in the Offices they held and the Parts each of them acted in the Government I find this Character given of them For the Duke of Buckingham as he was the Kings Favourite so he really deserved to be so as being very capable to be a Minister of State if his application to business had been answerable to his Talents if his mind which was furnished with excellent Endowments had not been distracted with Libertinism which was in him to an extream degree and by a love to his Pleasures which made one of those Persons in the World that was fittest for great and solid things vain and frivolous Of the Duke of Lauderdale there is little or nothing said but that he is a great and quaint Politian and no question but he has merited that Character at their hand Of my Lord Clifford they are as profuse in their Praises as I doubt they have been too of their Money saying he was a Person who wanted nothing but a Theatre where Vertue and Reason had been much more in use than it was in his Country in the Age wherein he lived for to be superiour to and overtop the rest My Lord of Arlinton they make to be a Person of a meaner Capacity and more limitted Genius than any of the Five but say his Experiences supply the Defect and has acquired him especially a very great knowledge of Forreign Affairs last of all they bring in Anthony Ashley Cooper the Renowned Earl of Shaftsbury of whom they say he was by far the fitter Person of any of them to manage a great Enterprize and so was as the Soul to all the rest being endued with a vast Capacity clear Judgment bold Nature and subtil Wit equally firm and constant in all he undertook a constant Friend but an implacable Enemy with many other Expressions such as his not being terrified neither with the greatness nor the multitude of the Crimes he judges necessary for his own preservation or the destruction of others much to his Lordships dishonour which is a clear Argument he was not for their Interest and for which he is much beholding to them Your Lordship will pardon the freedom I take with You and accept of the sincere endeavours to serve you of My Lord Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVII Of the Methods practised by the French Ministers to corrupt our Embassadors My Lord HAving given your Lordship some account of the opinion the French Court have had of some of our Statesmen it may be it will not be unacceptable to recount to your honour in this place some of those ways they have taken here to corrupt and pervert our Embassadors And I can boldly affirm that there has been hardly any one Embassador sent from our Court hither since the Restoration whom they have not endeavoured to corrupt and to get into a private Intreague to traverse not only what he was to Negotiate but even something of what themselves prest on our Princes by their own private Agents and on some of whom I have named one to your Lordship formerly they have made very great impressions to our Nations detriment for matters of main Consequence were treated of by private Ministers or Messengers between both Kings which were not as much as mentioned to the Embassadors sent in Publick who have been on our side sent only for Parade to Negotiate many times things whereof the contrary had been most commonly agreed upon especially in private only to blind by that piece of Formality the Eyes of our Subjects at home and of our Neighbours abroad or else to treat about matters of meer Complement or of but ordinary concern and tho' what has been privately treated on between the Two Kings or but only proposed was of great Concern to be kept secret and that for that very reason they knew our Embassadors were not made acquainted with it yet such has been their Malice and Treachery to our King and Country as to discover to our Embassadors or Envoys and their Secretaries such parts thereof as they have thought being once known to them would be most proper and effectual to induce our Ministers to enter into a particular Cabal with them for by-ends and many times to affirm things more invidious than ordinary to have been agreed upon between both Courts which were only proposed which kind of Communication of theirs had a very powerful influence by the curiosity that is natural to all Mankind to work upon our Ministers to entertain such a Correspondence with them to the dishonour and detriment of their King and Country for they have told them sometimes that not only the Points proposed by the Dutchess of Orleans but other things of as bad and dangerous consequence for the Subjects and Religion in England were absolutely concluded on between both Crowns unknown unto them and that our King and Duke of York had taken such and such Measures to put themselves into a Condition to do what they pleased and that the King their Master was willing to flatter them in such hopes and feed them with a little Money to keep them from taking part with his Enemies yet that truly at the bottom he had no such Zeal for Religion nor for the Pope of Rome as he had not for the King of England's over great Power and Absoluteness in Rule being things which could not but be prejudicial and very incompatible with his own greatness and therefore he should not fail underhand to favour the People of England in supporting their Liberties and Rights and defending their Religion and confining the Kingly or Regal Power to its own due limits And therefore if they Viz. our Envoys or Ministers would serve him in that design they might assure themselves they should be well gratified for
and well Disciplined and Commanded and this unpreparedness of ours was a great Incitement to most of the French Council to put their King upon the Immediate Invasion of England with his whole Force having already fore-felt the Hollanders and found them if not Inclinable to join with them in such a War yet content to sit still and be quiet they moved it so hotly that they had like to have carried it which had they England had run a very great risque at that time of being Ruined for said they If we make sure of England first we shut a Back door fast against all Danger and may then securely Attack the Austrian Potentates having first Trampled down the Hollanders in our way of whom having made sure of the De Wits their then Chief Ministers we shall find an easie prey But just as the Ambition of that Monarch was ready to take Fire at those so specious Motives Monsieur Le Tellier since Chancellor and Father to Monsieur Louvois the Eldest and Ablest Statesman and Minister of France interposed the substance of whose Speech I shall take Care to transmit to your Lordship in my next who am My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris August 23. 1676. N. St. LETTER XIV Containing an Account of Mons. Le Tellier's Arguments to disswade the French King from the Invasion of England My Lord ACcording to my Engagement in my last I shall now entertain your Lordship with Mons. Le Tellier's Remonstrance upon the Advice given the French King to Invade England He did acknowledge that the Counsel proposed was in it self very good supposing there were a certainty of effecting it but it was to be considered that it would prove of most pernicious Consequence in case the same were Attempted without Success That England was the Rock against which the late formidable Power of Spain had dasht in pieces its Aspiring Fortunes and that the like Expedition now by the House of Bourbon would prove alike Fatal to its Rising Power unless they were Infallibly sure of their Blow For to meddle with England at all unless they could absolutely Conquer it would be but to rouze a sleepy Lion slur the Reputation of their Arms and singe the Wings of their growing Greatness before they were fully fledg'd That it was impossible to make such a Conquest but by Intestine Divisions or Surprize unless they were first Masters of its Outworks the Low Countries That for a Surprize he thought it almost impracticable and that tho' it was possible they might â—ure the Hollanders to join with them and England was then indeed unprovided of Forces both by Sea and Land yet there was no trusting to that because there were no Factions then whose Designs were ripe enough to Favour such an Enterprize And that tho' they should prove so Successful in that Advantagious Juncture as to enter England they could expect no greater Advantage by it than just to frighten the King and the Nation and plunder them of a little Wealth and so be gone making but a Tartarian Expedition of it Because the universal and strong Antipathy of the English People both High and Low against the French Name and Domination would be an Invincible Obstacle to their setling there and would quickly make that Island too hot for them That therefore meerly to Attack and Pillage them without being able to reduce them totally would but whet the Animosity of those Warlike Nations whose Courage had always been wont to be heightned by Disgraces and was always Victorious when once fired with Indignation That such an Enterprize would for ever alienate the Heart of the then King and the whole Royal Family from the French Interest and make them by Inclination as well as Interest not only give way to but passionately to abet and make most Advantagious use of the Natural Animosity of their most Warlike Subjects against France That it would Unite the Peoples Hearts so firmly to their King and create so much mutual Confidence between them that it would be impossible afterward to divide them and so raise the Power of that Monarchy to a pitch from which it could not chuse but prove both formidable and fatal to them That it would rouze up the King then almost Drowned in Voluptuousness and Sensual Delights and make him a Man both of War and Business against his Will and cause him to enter into such Alliances with the House of Austria and other Powers as must needs be of Pernicious Consequences to the Designs of their great Bourbonian Hero That therefore it was better not to think of any such Attempt England being like a Flint sooner broken by soft than hard Methods That the King himself and also his Brother were much French by Inclination at present that the former was very Indulgent to his Pleasure that he was that way so Profuse and Prodigal that he would always be Necessitous of Money which his Parliament beginning to grow weary of giving him it would e'er long cause such strugglings between the Courtiers and Patriots of the Country as would give them ample Scope to compass their Ends in England by a more sure and less dangerous way than by a War which in all appearance would defeat all the Advantages they might otherwise reap there by other Methods That therefore the best way was to endeavour to take Advantage of the King's Infirmities to try whether there were a Witty French Beauty that could be Fortunate enough to gain on his Affections for that such an one would be a most Admirable Instrument for them That they should offer him Money and feed his Extravagance that way send dexterous Persons well furnished with Golden Charms to work on all the Leading Men among all their Factions and secretly to keep some Pensioners both among their Courtiers Patriots and Church-men and blow up and foment new Divisions That they should send thither some very able Embassador and keep him there a long time That they should incite the Hollanders to a new War with the English and the English with them and treat with and Promise Assistance to the former to the last Moment but in Conclusion join with the latter if it were possible to perswade the English King to a War And that on that pretence they might procure such numbers of English Forces especially Foot as might not only amend the Defects of their own Soldiery which still came very short in good Infantry but bring their own Native People by degrees inferring daily Examples of Strangers Bravery to imitate their Courage and Firmness in Set-Battels and to get a Stock of good Infantry by Land by drawing the English to them against the Dutch as they had already done of good Ships by Sea and Warlike Munitions by joining before with the Dutch against the English in the former Wars Yet that they might so order things that whatever Stipulations were made with the King of England to his Advantage to allure him to such a War should
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
that on the other side he foresaw such unsurmountable Difficulties in attempting such a Re-establishment that he did not think any Policy no nor the whole Power of France could he Command it all entire without any divertion from other Interested Neighbours too extraordinary a Juncture to be probably expected could be able to carry him through them To which the Princess who saw well enough as well by his Looks and Actions as by his Expressions that she had made more sensible Impressions upon his Spirits than he was willing to acknowledge thinking she had done enough for her part and sufficiently broke the Ice for those that should be designed to push the Point further at more leisure modestly replied That since that was his Majesty's Sence in which he was fixed she would wave all farther Importunities on that Subject and leave it wholly depending between himself and God whom she would continually pray to Inspire his Majesty with Light enough to know and Courage enough to embrace the Truth in his appointed time But however she should be glad to know his Majesty's Sentiments as to the Design against Holland adding that she was confident he could not but think it was at least for his Interest and seasible too Yes Madam answered the King I am Convinced that if crowned with Success it would be enough for the Interest of this Monarchy and of my People too but yet as practicable as it seems to be to you it is likewise not without its Difficulties and those very great ones too for the ill Success of my last War with that Nation the Dissatisfaction of my People thereupon the Tripple League in which I am lately engaged with Holland the Inclination my Subjects have for the Dutch as being a Protestant Nation and the Implacable Avertion they have to the French and their Jealousies of their Power and of their Religion are mighty Obstacles in the way However if my Brother of France can propose me any practicable Expedients to remove them which I much doubt I will as I have said do what I can to comply with him in that Enterprize And so the Princess declaring her self well satisfied with what had been said upon the Subject of her Errand they passed from the Businesses of State to the Divertisements of the Court from which being obliged much sooner to break off than they were willing by the more swift than welcome approach of the time Limitted for her departure with unconceivable Regret and ill-presaging Tears she took her leave of her Royal Brothers tho' little did she or they imagine it to be her last Farewel for soon after her return to France she died not without vehement Suspicion of being Poisoned But that her Husband the Duke of Orleance had any just Cause given him further to foment his Jealousie of her upon this Visit for he certainly was suspitious of her Conduct before any mention of that Journey and so pushed him on to the practice of undue means to accelerate her Fate has been a Matter of much Discourse both in England and France and continues to this Day a Mystery which I will not nor cannot pretend to determine and so begging your Lordship's Pardon for this tedious Epistle I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 3. 1677. N. St. LETTER XVIII Of Mrs. Carewell's coming into England in 1670. and introduced to be the King's Miss My Lord IN one of my Letters to your Lordship concerning Monsieur Le Tellier's Sentiments in regard to the Management of the Affairs of England to the Advantage of the French among other Expedients he proposed the sending over some Choice Female as might be capable to Charm a Prince whose Heart was so susceptible of an Amorous Flame as that of the King of England In Conformity to which Project they made Choice of the Opportunity of the Princess's going over to effect it and therefore she upon her Arrival presented our King her Brother with her Woman known then by the Name of Madam Carewell but much better since by the Title of Dutchess of Portsm to serve the French King as a Heifer afterwards to Plow withal as being such as was not carelesly or fortuitously picked out from among the French Herd but expresly singled out for that purpose And how well she acted her part in time coming will appear in its proper place so that if they failed in their Ends of furnishing the King with a French Wife they were resolved to make it up by supplying of him with a French Whore and this being an Omission in my last and having nothing of greater Moment to write at present to keep my Correspondence with your Lordship I have taken the Opportunity to testifie unto you how ready I am My Lord To Serve You. Paris Feb. 13. 1677. N. St. LETTER XIX The paces made by the Duke of Buckingham and afterward by the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans towards bringing the King over to joyn with the French against the Dutch not fully succeeding according to expectation they resolve upon other methods First by making sure of the Duke of York and then by inciting the Dutch to provoke the King to a War with them My Lord I have given your Lordship an account of the Princess Henrietta's Negotiation in England and of the Kings dilatory Answer in regard to his Conjunction with the French to make War upon the United Provinces which put the French Polititians somewhat to a Nonplus but considering how well inclined the Duke was to the Popish Religion and how he had exprest his thoughts to the Princess the King being present of the advantage and reasonableness of the French Proposals they made an Essay to see what they could do that way and whether the great confidence he had with and Influence over his Brother might not induce him to accept of the offer They found him plyable enough but upon Application he did not find the King so but much more disposed to live at Rest and Pleasure than to engage himself in so much Sollicitude as a War would inevitably bring him to And besides he was much afraid to discontent his People further who were already so ill satisfied with the ill Conduct and Disasters that befel them in the last War and whom he knew so wholly averse to a new one unless the Fresh Water-Gandy-Caps and Feathers especially were dismissed and the Conduct of it wholly left to the Old Tarpolians who so successfully asserted their Cause with those People in the Republican and Oliverian times the happiness of which the late ill Success had much enhaunsed in their Eyes Yet the French Agents continued pressing of him and tampering with his Ministers to compass their ends urging all the specious Motives in the World and sparing neither present Advances of Money nor the most Magnificent Promises of future Acknowledgment but finding still a great Resistance to any such Overtures they at length resolved to play their
to push on their Conquest to the utmost without demurring upon any Points or Scruples relating to us even into those Parts belonging to our Repartition and especially to seize on Amsterdam it self if possible before we could reflect on and much less oppose so sudden an Exploit which Capture alone they not without Reason thought would be succeeded with a voluntary Cession of all the remaining Places and Provinces and with the Accession of the most part of the Fleets Merchants and Colonies of that potent Republick who would not fail to conceive partly for fear of losing otherwise their whole Proprieties in the Moneys and Effects leâ—t by them in that great Magazine of both Hemisphears and partly to enjoy the pretended Liberties and Immunities mighty Priviledges and other prodigious Advantages with which their Agents contrary to their League withus had already privately tempted and had Instructions further to allure those industrious and thriving People with to come over perfectly to them and decline us Against whom their Emissaries imployed so many Arts to exasperate those People That tho' both Enemies and the French much more formidable then we to what by them and all free-born People was most Prizable viz. Liberty Property and Religion yet the English was at that time the more hated name of the two to their depraved Apprehension And as for our King they reckoned him so enchanted with the Opinion both of the Necessity and Integrity of their Friendship to him and so intent in that confidence on his beloved Pleasures with another She-Magitian of theirs newly sent him for that purpose tempered with the most intoxicating Venom known to Female Arts that they never thought he could have any sense at liberty to mind what they did and therefore knowing on the other side there could arrive no disturbance time enough from the Empire to spoile their Game it thundring from thence yet but a far off they were moving with all greediness their Harpy-Talons to seize on t his important Prey And had without all doubt attained their purpose in the strange and pannick Terror that at that time seemed to disable the Hands and lock up the Senses of the otherwise couragious and politick Inhabitants of that famous Emporium had not Divine Providence just in that Moment by two most unlikely Accidents but yet most effectual Expedients interposed between them and Destruction of which I may give your Lordship some hints in my next who am in the mean time My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 29. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of the Massacring the De Wits the Revolution in Holland and the Restitution of the Prince of Orange to all the Authority of his Ancestors with Offers made him by the French King of the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and his Rejection of them My Lord. IN my last to your Lordship I gave you some account of the Progress of the French Army in their Conquest of the United Provinces the Resolutions they had taken both to elude the Crown of England of receiving any Benefit by the War to push on their own Conquests and Wheedles to induce the City of Amsterdam to yield to them And I have more over hinted to your Lordship that there fell out two unexpected Accidents at that time which put a full stop to their Arms The first whereof I shall briefly run over to your Lordship For while the French Armies were ready to seize that important Place and that every individual Person was in that Consternation that they only thought of saving their own Families without otherwise concerning themselves about the Interest of their Countrey nay and that without staying for the French King 's sending a Summons for the Town to yield a Council was held in the City whether they should not go out to meet him to desire he would be pleased to take it into his Protection as well as all the Inhabitants thereof there was very great Danger of their coming to this Resolution when the Divine Providence wonderfully appeared by inspiring a couragious Citizen tho' till then no very remarkable one neither whose Name and perhaps your Lordship ne'er heard it before was Offe and ought certainly to be consecrated to Posterity so as never to be left out of the Annals of Time and who was immediately seconded by another called Hassenaer to stand up alone in the dreadful Gap and with a Voice like a Trumpet to awaken his dispirited Country-men out of the Lethargy of black Despondency with which the cowardly Tyrant Fear had bound up both their Limbs and Intellectuals and to excite them as the poor Geese formerly did the drowsy Romans at least to make some Defence for that Capital and Capitâ—l of the Batavian Commonwealth and not rashly to deliver up that great Palladium viz. The vast Bank of Riches therein on which seemed to depend the state of Europe into the Hand of a Prince who wanted only Manacles from thence to enfetter her and whose Courage to attack said the same Citizen and I have heard the French-men themselves mention his Name with many Elogiums depended solely on the Fears which the Artifices of his treacherous Correspondents within their Walls more then the Noise of his Armies had raised among them and consequently on the least shew of Unity and Resolution among them would sink with their Cause nay continued he rather then fall into the Hands of him who however his Emissaries here have represented him slily to the contrary will assuredly prove a merciless Tyrant unto us let us call in the Sea it self whom we shall find a much more merciful Element to our assistance And this my Lord being seconded by the Dutch Mob now astonished and confounded with the loss of their Country by Land and opposed by two the most potent Kings in the World by Sea they in a Rage assassinated the two De Wits as the Betrayers of their Country and Causers of that same Calamity and then deposed the States who they looked upon to be of the Lovestein or De Wits Faction and then restored the Prince of Orange now at Age to the hereditary Authority and Command of his Ancestors which sudden and violent Proceedings did more then stun the French King but after a little recovery and finding that his Friends in Amsterdam and other places yet unconquered were dispossest of all Authority and that now the Prince of Orange managed all the Affairs of the State with Pensionary Fagel he made an Essay to catch the Prince in a Net he with his Council had finely spun for him by proposing to make him Soveraign of the United Provinces under his and his Brother of England's Protection I never could learn who it was they employed to the Prince upon this occasion and what Arguments they induced to gain his Consent tho' they may be easily guest at they being never entred into their Cabinet Minutes and perhaps it was because they met with such a Success upon the
Prince as they did not in the least expect whose Answer was He would never betray a Trust reposed in him nor ever sell the Liberties of his Country that his Ancestors had so long defended c. I have not opportunity to go on in the Prosecution of this Subject at present but hope in my next to make it up to your Lordships content and so remain My Lord Your Honours most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 3. 1678. LETTER XXX Of the Embassy sent by King Charles II. upon the Advice of the Earl of Shaftsbury to Expostulate with the French King and stop his further Proceedings My Lord I Have in my last to your Lordship taken notice of the Surprize and Indignation the French King and his Council were put to at the Revolution in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the United Provinces and how much his Correspondents had deceived him in assuring him that all was his own in that wealthy City and that there seemed but that one place to perfect and secure the re-union of all the Belgick Provinces that renouned part of the ancient Gallia to his new French-Burbonian Empire as he was advised by some to call it and now to see his victorious Chariot in its full speed and almost at the end of all its Career receive a check by the resolution of one puny Burgher and withall that his Attempts upon the young Prince of Orange proved abortive however considering he was Master of all the places round about and no Power then on the Continent being in a posture to come to its Relief and that tho' the Prince of Orange were restored to the Command of his Ancestors he had as good almost to have been without in the Posture his own and the Affairs of the State were then in and confiding still in the Influence of those of his Cabal within who were Men of greater Estates and Eminence tho' at present laid aside then that obscure Burgher and those whom the Mob had advanced to their Offices and besides that the little Vigour that seemed to be infused into the drooping Spirits of the Citizens by the foresaid Revolution and Remonstrances would quickly vanish and be interpreted as a flash of unseasonable and insignificant Rashness at the sight of his formidable Troops and disappear like Smoak before the Sun to whom his flatterers had taught him to compare himself it was resolved the place should be reduced if not otherwise by his Arms with all speed to prevent any interveaning Accidents that might impede the mighty success But seasonably came another Adventure that put a new Spoke in the Wheel For my Lord while the French Court thought themselves secure of all things on our side as having in their Imagination not only lulled the King asleep but the five Persons that made up the Cabal that managed him and in effect there were four of them in their Interests the fifth Man who was that renowned Statesman and true Patriot the Earl of Shaftsbury then Lord Chancellor of England whose sagacious Head could penetrate deeper then the rest and whose Eagle Eyes the Splendor of those Golden Pieces streaming in such abundance from that French Phaeton and which had blinded so many others in the like Station could not dazzle used all his Efforts to rouse up our King from the heavy slumber of Security into which French Sorcery had cast him and highly to represent to him in their true Light the fatal Consequences to his Crown Dignity and Interest attending the taking of that City and the total Conquest of the Hollanders tho' now his Enemies by any other at least then English Hands and above all by the Arms of France and constrained him by the Cogency of his Reasons and vigorous Representations of a speedy and brisk Interposition prest home with an Importunity that would admit of no Evasion nor allow any Repose but immediately to dispatch away an Embassy to divert the impending Stroke But tho' my Lord by his pressing Eloquence gained his Point in regard to the Embassy in it self yet your Lordship very well knows that two of the three Persons employed in it viz. the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Arlington were deeply engaged in the French Interest and seemed by their carriage at the French Court then at Utretch rather as if they had been sent to promote the French Conquests then any way to obstruct them and because they knew my Lord Hallifax was honest they did all they could to oppose his appearing and acting conjunctly with them tho' included in the same Commission in as ample a manner as themselves under pretence of his coming a day or two after them to the Hague And when they could no longer keep him from acting went privately to the French Camp under sham-Pretences and had Negotiations of their own on foot But tho' my Lord Hallifax's Vigilancy Constancy and Resolutions could not balk theirs and the French King's Designs yet it put them hard to it and they saw plainly that it was the King's mind they should desist However the French Court never forgot that noble Lord the adviser of the Embassy whereof I shall not forget to give your Lordship account in due place but do intend in my next to transmit the Substance of the Consultation held by the French King upon this unexpected Embassy and so wishing your Honour all happiness remain My Lord your devoted Servant Paris June 14. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXI An account of the Council held by the French King upon the Embasie from England with the resolves thereupon and methods proposed to elude it My Lord UPON so ticklish and unexpected an Occasion as was mentioned in my last a Council Extraordinary was held wherein the major part after a serious and warm Debate were for their Kings pursuing his first Resolution maugre all the Considerations to the contrary and to venture even a rupture with England if it could not be avoided otherwise rather than quit so dainty a morsel and lose an opportunity never to be again retrieved of gaining a Post from whence he might easily defie all the Force of Europe But however to carry on things the more fairly for his Reputation and to accomplish if possible his design without a present War with England whose Friendship was as yet more convenient than its Hate they advised him to dispatch away immediately some acceptable and able Minister to our Court with store of Allamode Lenitives to that Sore and to return an Answer in the mean while to our Embassadors full of specious pretences and promises of intended advantage to their Prince and Country by that veâ—y expedition they were sent to diswade and to tell them that his Most Christian Majesty having reduced his and their Masters common Enemy so low as they now saw them and such a panick Terror having seized the People even of the Capital City that if it were made use of in time must needs make the Town an easie prey to him if
to them That matters of Religion and Commerce should remain in the same state As also the Priviledges of their Companies Collonies c. That they should have the priviledges of Natives in all the other Dominions of France with many other Sugar-Plums To the exact performance of which it was not to be questioned but they would easily give credit since to that time his Honour was entire and had no ways been stained with any gross Infidelities and that the Protestants then enjoyed no small Liberty in his Dominions And when you shall be in the possession of the place all these specious promises need not hinder your Majesty said they from seizing however as much of their Treasure as your Interest shall direct you to take nor from putting such other restraints upon them as you please for which they gave him such expedients as were thought proper and necessary for to elude the advantageous and specious Conditions by which their over-credulous Inhabitants were to be wheedled out of their precious Liberties In the last place they laid before him the many and grand Inconveniences which by letting slip such an advantageous Juncture would unavoidably follows which they represented as much more in number and of vastlier greater Consequence than those that could possibly arrive from his pursuing it For urged they if your Majesty let go this Opportunity It will not only be said of you as of the Great Hannabal that you know how to get but know not how to prosecute a Victory but the same Fate will likewise befall you This despised and almost oppressed Enemy will recover Strength and Courage the Germans and the House of Austria will come into its succour you must quit your present Conquests to oppose them and your present Allies on the Continent will forsake you If you be beaten how disadvantageous and perhaps fatal must the event needs be to you and if you overcome yet how far will you be from a compleat Conquest or from making that advanced and assured progress towards the erection of a new Empire as you would do in the taking that one place whose Gates tho' they belong but to one City would let you into the Possession of the most valuable parts of the Earth and furnish you with the nerves of War which thereby would be cut off from the rest of the World I was not willing to give your Lordship an account of this Consultation by piece-meals and that has made me so tedious who am My Lord Your Honour 's to serve You. Paris July 2. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXII Of the Confederacy entered into for the defence of Holland of the Prince of Orange's success against France and of the Methods used by the French to hinder the King of England to make Peace and joyn with the Dutch by removing my Lord Shaftsbury from being Chancellor c. My Lord THere was hardly a Prince on the Earth worse served than our King and paid more no less than Three Embassadors to make up the Embassy mentioned in my last save one to your Lordship and yet Two of the Three concurring with the French designes to the ruine of Hollund first and so consequently their own Native Country next so that the poor Hollanders as your Lordship may well remember were forced to save their Country from the French who pursuant to the last advise were ready to devour it by losing it in the Sea in breaking down the Dikes the last extremity and the only remedy they had left them for this gave them time to think of their Affairs and this first brought the Elector of Brandenburg then the Emperor and at last the King or Queen Regent of Spain as apprehensive of the common danger to all of them in general by the French subduing the Dutch Provinces to enter into a mutual League for their defence and by their Conjunction The Prince of Orange who had all this time struggled with the hardest destiny that could be and lay neglected by his Uncles as if they had no share either in his good or bad Fortunes recovered several of the Upland Towns in almost as little time as they had been taken by the French and like another Scipio having joyned Montecucucli the Emperors General in the dead of Winter and so carrying the War out of his own Country Besieged and took Bon the Residence of the Elector of Cologn and thereby did cut off the Comunication between France and Holland whereby the French were necessitated not only to quit their Conquered Towns by heaps but he also opened a passage for the Imperial Forces to joyn the Dutch and Spanish But tho' neither the sence of his own true Interest nor the Tyes of Consanguinity to the Prince of Orange could induce our King to come to the rescue of Holland which notwithstanding the Princes bravery and success was still but in a pitiful plight as having but newly recovered their drowned Country yet the French had an incurable Jealousie of him the remembrance of the forementioned interposition by his Embassy was still fresh in memory And as that fell out when they least expected any such thing so they considered a Peace might be struck up in as sudden and surprizing a manner and therefore they set all their Engines on work to hinder it if possible and in the first place knowing that great Person who had the influence over the King to procure such an Embassy and might also by the same Arguments induce him to make a much hardier step and force him at last in spight of his own inclinations or of French Menaces as well as of French Charmes not only to a Peace with Holland but even to a War against them They therefore left nothing unessay'd or stone untur'd to get him to dispose of the Chancellor's place tho' it was well known the King himself upon a certain occasion had given his Testimony of his being the wisest Subject he had in his Dominions and seemed at that time to value him accordingly I cannot positively inform your Lordship by which of their Instruments it was done for I never could find it was inserted in the Minutes but I have heard it generally discoursed at the French Court that they ploughed in this Affair with the Heifer they had formerly presented the King withal and that the Duke also whom they by their Emissaries iritated against him to whom they alledged that he had taken notice of his keeping off of late from the Protestant Worship and talked too liberally thereof not without some Expressions boding much danger to his Highness and even levelled at putting him by the Succession it self gave an helping hand thereto But for all they had gained so considerable a point as the removal of the Chancellor yet fearing still the worst they never left off their former apprehensions And therefore their Ministers still continued with utmost Application to pursue their Game both by magnificent Promises and Offers of Money and some Menaces a la
sourdene but with instructions after all their industry if they could not succeed in obstructing the peace yet not to fail to elude it which how well they succeeded in the first for a time and when that could not be warded off no longer how much more fortunate success they have had in the latter I shall endeavour to make your Lordship acquainted with at another time when I hope they may be no less grateful to your Honour's gusto from him who desires to approve himself to be My Lord Your Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 9. 1678. LETTER XXXIII Of the Negotiating a Marriage between the Duke of York and the Princess of Inspruck in Germany How that Match came to be broke off and how the French gain'd their Point in Marrying the Princess of Modena to him My Lord THings continuing in the same posture I mentioned in my last to your Lordship between England and France the latter having the full ascendency over our King and Court to keep them from the Peace with Holland and to enter into a War in Conjunction with the rest of the Confederates against them and the Duke of York happening to be a Widower who was entirely as they thought in their Interests at this time which was the year 1673. there was an Intrigue started up and carried on that in all appearance was â—eady to break the Thread of all their Contrivances and irrecoverably to overturn all they had been so long and with so much pains about but another as lucky a hit interposed timely in their Aid which salved all their drooping Interest in our Court again sounder than ever tho' like the Beast in the Apocalypse it seemed to have received its deadly wound For when a Negotiation was now not only set on foot but in a manner concluded for Matching our Duke with a Princess of the Austrian Family an Alliance which would certainly have broke the neck of all Leagues with France and make England once more the Ballance between those two mighty Powers I say just when a Match was concluded with a Princess of the House of Austria and nothing seemed remaining to the accomplishing of it but celebrating the Espousals and bringing over the Lady into England to remain the gage of a close and lasting Alliance between the Royal Stem of England and that Illustrious and Potent House and the Monsieur at biting his Nails for spite to see his Interest there desperate and past retrieval it most luckily happened to him that in that very interim the Empress died and the Emperor coming to want a Confort and finding no other worthy his Choice according to the usuâ—l practice of the Austrian Families whose Branches intermarry frequently with one another he retain'd the Lady for himself and so defeating our Prince of his Spouse and putting of him in a new quest gave the French an opportunity to prosser him a Female who they knew descended from a right Intriguing Breed and would be sure to do their Work throughly and thereby not only renew but make sure against all Events that Alliance that hath since proved so pernicious to all Europe and so vexatious to the one as well as to the other of our Princes This Match they knew might be of great importance to them not only as to the promoting their Ambitious Ends in England but in Italy too and if they could once ensnare the Duke into it would as fixedly tie him to their Interests as it would infallibly lose him every where else and engage not only the Protestant Subjects of these Kingdoms but even all the other Powers of Christendom as well of the Roman Communion as the Reformed to oppose his future Elevation that so he might be wholly dependant upon them She being a Lady not only Italian by Nation but a Relation of the Pope and in that Quality most odious to England and also of the late Cardinal Mazarine and in a word of a Prince Pensionary to the French and an adopted Daughter of France which last Quality they honoured her with to render her compleatly hateful to all the World besides most liberally paying her Portion Pentioning the King and greasing the Ministers to have the Parliament Prorogued that in the interim the Match might be huddled up with all the precipitation imaginable for fear upon the least delay by contrary Sollicitations from the Austrians or any other Potentates abroad or any black and grumbling Clouds at home the unstable King might be over-persuaded or frighted from letting his Brother go on with that destructive Alliance These my Lord were their Contrivances and Precautions upon this Subject and they succeeded so well in their Endeavours that mauger any Reasons the King might have to the contrary or any Opposition made by some few then about him that Match was concluded from which England may in a very great measure date the commencement of her ensuing Grievances and which according to the Parliament's Prediction of it caused such terrible Earthquakes in the three Nations already and God Almighty alone knows what the dire Effects may be and where things will terminate at long run though it may at the same time prove better than our fears For after it was once done they cared not what Storms it produced amongst us for if the endeavours of an Alliance cemented with so charming a Female unwearied in enticements could not allure nor the sugâ—ed Professions of a constant Amity and Protection besides the powerful Spells of continual Supplies of Money engage sufficiently yet they were confident the troubles it would cause would necessitate him for Self-preservation to keep close to their Interests and to be content perhaps for the preservation of the rest to give them part of his Estates whenever it should succeed and make them Executors of his Will or at least at all Adventures keep up such Divisions as by the care they would take to balance the respective Parties concerned in them would both divert and disable the Nation from exerting their Resentment against them to any great purpose These my Lord were the Improvements they proposed to make by this Match and herewith I shall conlude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's very humble Servant Paris Aug. 30. 1678. LETTER XXXIV Of the Peace made between England and Holland in February 1673 4. The Motives to it and the French Methods to elude it by retaining the Irish still in their Service with our Courts connivence My Lord I Have formerly taken notice to your Lordship of the Methods and Precautions the French used to keep our King from making a Peace with the Dutch-States and how they made it their business to dispossess all those and particularly my Lord Shaftsbury of the King's Ear and Favour who were concerned for His and the Nation 's Interest by promoting such a Peace but though they prevailed therein as well as in that of the Duke's Marriage with a Female of their own chusing yet my Lord you know very well
chosen by this Court purely for his Capacity is not to be admitted of You know my Lord the Triple League stuck then close in the French King's stomach and that the danger Religion was in as well as Property from the progress of the French Arms before in the Netherlands contributed very much to the cementing of such an Alliance which this Court were labouring tooth and nail to break to pieces and more especially to get the King of England out of it and to that end Monsieur Ruvigny's Religion he being a Protestant highly recommended him How well he discharged his Commission then I need not recount to your Lordship the Event has sufficiently discovered it to England as well as to Holland's sorrow and to the no small regret of some of those of his own Religion and Fraternity in France It was much about Six years after that the same Marquess was entrusted with another Negotiation at the English Court to no less pernicious an end than the former and I fear at long run with worse effects They had my Lord besides the Instruments I have formerly mentioned for some time before this imploy'd several of their own Hugonots in England for the carrying their Intrigues more effectually on among our Protestants which Hugonots have been the more forward to please and obey the Instructions of their Prince and his Ministers in that they have believed them very compatible with their own particular Interests wherefore they have done all they could to contribute to the Elevation of the Presbyterian Government in our Nation which because the same with their own they have naturally had some desire to see established in a Kingdom so able to protect them and which had hitherto been the great impediment to their extirpation in France But to return from this Digression for which I beg your Lordship's pardon to the Marquess de Ruvigny his Instructions were to endeavour to possess the Protestants in general in our Nation which were now my Lord full of fears of some Secret Designs a brewing between the two Kings in prejudice to their Religion and Civil Rights too that they needed not to be so much concerned at Appearances that it was far enough from the thoughts of his Master to make their King great to his Subjects prejudice and that he was not so zealous for the Roman Religion as they might imagine whereof he was to urge several instances and to endeavour to throw off all the odium from him upon the Pope and the Court of Rome and thereby make them level all their Fears Jealousies and odious Reflections that way to the end that by the Royal Church-Party who had the King's ear they might still secure him further in their Interests and have their helping-hand to carry on those Points they aimed at that way viz. the hindring the Princesses matching with the Prince of Orange and the Offensive Alliance so much feared then and now with the Confederates c. But this was but one Party of the Protestants his Instructions also were to make a particular Interest among the Dissenters and such as inclined to them at the same time that in case they were defeated in the one and saw no likelihood of staving off the other they might have them ready prepared to enter the lists against the former and when War was ready to be declared against France to push them on if possible to raise a Civil Combustion at home and to insinuate into them That the King his Master was willing privately to assist them as his Predecessor had done theirs in the late Civil Wars upon occasion c. in which sort of Negotiation the Marquis was effectually enough seconded by his Countrymen Hugonots then in England and particularly by a man of singular Parts and Learning and exceedingly well versed in Intriegue named Monsieur but on the contrary in case they should have been able by the Royal Party to have been strong and successful enough to gain the two said Points and hinder both the Match and the War which was their business and is still in part to oppose they had Orders to have the same Dissenting Party still ready when King Lewis and his Cousins of England should have had that part of their ends of the Conforming Party to make use of them against them if they would not humour them so far as to suffer themselves to be carried quite back to Rome And because all our Protestants however differently denominated should take no umbrage at any of this Court's Proceedings they thought fit once more to let their Sun as they so often term him to cast some warm beams on the Hugonot Party at home and to entertain them awhile with some Courâ—ly Smiles whereby they have designed to amuse our people and at the same time make their own Protestants to be their Instruments to carry on the Divisions of those who while united are their only Protectors for hitherto while they have had War with the Confederates and chiefly with Holland and are in fear of one with England it being yet out of their power to destroy these people they have thought it their interest not to exasperate them whereby they may be tempted to run over to the Enemy but rather for the present to court them and make them serviceable unto them by working in the very Mines which in all human probability are designed to blow them up withal I will not intrude When Captain E returns I should take it as a singular favour to receive a line from your Lordship and particularly your Sentiments of our Home-affairs by him whom I shall expect with utmost impatience who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 20. 1678. LETTER XXXVI Of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced by the Emperor for Corresponding with the French about the Year 1674. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot be ignorant that during this Intrieguing in England and Canvassing of Designs against our King and Kingdom the War went on on this side with various success but I find England is not the only Country that has been bubbled by the French Emissaries and had its Secrets betrayed I cannot tell any one part of the Confederates that have been exempted but Germany more particularly has suffered in this kind variously but in nothing so remarkably as in the business of Prince Lobkowitz's being disgraced some time since by the Emperor and which has made so much noise in the World that your Lordship could not but hear of it That he corresponded with this Court there is nothing more certain though when the business was once winded their Emissaries thought it adviseable to be the first Rumorers of it but related the same with Particulars so extraordinary that were scarce credible that thereby they might turn the whole at length into a ridicule But the way of their Correspondence with the said Prince and others in the Empire was so intricate to be fathomed that 't is no wonder the matter
Engagement with him that all he can say or do will never convince them of the contrary or induce them to trust him with Money to make War against France for fear he should use it against themselves and not only so but it would make him as suspected among the Confederates that none of them from hence forward would trust him either for an Assistant Allie or Mediator and so would render him of insignificant force to thwart our Designs But the King did for once Trick the Trickers by the care he had taken of the Princess as I shall note elsewhere to your Lordship and by his sudden marrying her to his Highness the Prince of Orange so much to the surprize and disappointment of this Court that I cannot express it and therefore must conclude subscribing my self My LORD Your Lordship 's most humble and most devoted Servant Paris Dece 7. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXIII Of the Popish Plot and Father Kelley's Menaces My LORD THE discourse about the Plot cannot be more in England than 't is here but the Particulars of the prosecution of it your Lordship must know much better than I I do not question but there is Villany enough at the bottom of it but our Ministers are as deep in the sudds as any other whatsoever who by their slights and wicked practises have drawn the English Papists into such Combinations as hath put the Nation into such ferments incurable Jealousies and divisions as hath effectually diverted the English from hunting the French in Flanders by imploying them to hunt the Papists and Jesuits at home as they have been pleased to word it My Lord It may not perhaps be unpleasing to give your Honour an account of some passages that happened between one Father Kelley an Irish Priest and my self in this City lately concerning the King c. I know very well that there were and and perhaps may be still some of that name in England but this same has lived for some years at Paris by St. Jean de Greve and tho' a Priest is a great Banker paying most of the pensions for secret service transmitted to the English Romanists but chiefly to Irish Papists in England and Ireland and who by his discourse upon the late English Fleet and Armies being ready and the War likely to be declared against this Kingdom was pleased then to say somewhat in relation to this Conspiracy that I have little thought on till very lately and that may give your Honour some light into the designs of this Court say'd he the King of France will find him meaning our King work enough by Divisions at home and discovering if needs be his and his Brothers intreagues in France and does not care tho' he expose all the Roman Catholicks in the three Kingdoms to a general and hot persecution so long as like the Turkish Asaphi they serve to blunt the English Men's fury and divert them from thwarting the designs of the potent Catholick Kingdom of France which would afterward set all right again but that he was in hopes by their hunting of Papists they would never leave hunting the King and his Brother too if they proved refractory till they had brought them to take Sanctuary in a stricter Alliance with the French King than ever as their only Safe-guard and that it was in the French King's power to spring up a Plot next day to give the King of England Game enough for his life time for that the Mines and Trains were already lay'd and that there needed only putting fire to them c. I am very sorry I could not have oblieged your Lordship sooner with these passages which yet I hope comes not too late but it may in some measure be grateful from My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1678. N. S. LETTER LXIV Of the Duke of York's being Commanded to retire to Bruxells in the Year 1679 and of the Promises made him by the King before his departure My LORD I Know not how Matters go in England nor what the Sence of the people is in general concern the Duke's retiring to Bruxells but I can assure your Lordship they seem to be mightily allarmed here at it tho' they put a good meen upon it Perhaps your Lordship may know much more of the Secret of this Journey than I can inform you but if what is transmitted hither by the Agents of our Grand Minister be acceptable they give us this account That the Earl of D was the person who advised the King to remove his Royal Highness from his presence and that his Reasons for it were that the Parliament might have no pretence for to complain of his Majesty that he had not taken all the Measures necessary for the Security of their Religion and Liberty but they tell us how true I leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to determine that the Earl by the foresaid Advise did not so much consult the King and Kingdoms true Interest as he did to please the Parliament with whom he was at odds because of the Money received to disband the Army and the French Alliance finding now by Experience that that Artifice of his in bringing the Plot upon the stage in order to amuse them had failed They further inform us that the Duke was mightily surprized at the Message for his departure and made some difficulty to bring himself to resolve to obey it but that at length recollecting a better Temper it gave his fast friends an Opportunity to advise him That though it were at that juncture necessary he should obey the King yet it was no less prudent that he should in so doing take all necessary Precautions not to abandon his Fortune to the discretion of his Enemies that they did not doubt but that the Duke of Monmouth would push hard to get himself declared Legitimate by the ensuing Parliament That the business of the Exclusion would be renewed and that there was room enough to fear least his Retreat might be rather interpreted for the flight of a guilty Person than for the Obedience of a submissive Subject that therefore it was expedient he should get the King first to promise him that he would declare and get it Recorded too in the Courts of Justice that he had never been Married to the Duke of Monmouth's Mother That he would by no means consent to the Exclusion that was now likely to be prest upon him and lastly that he should give him express Order in writing to require his Retirement All which they say he has happily accomplished the truth whereof time must determine whereunto I leave it who am My LORD Your Humble Servant Paris Apr. 6. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXV Of the Noise of King Charles's Divorce from Queen Katherine My LORD THE business of the King's Divorce has made a mighty noise on this side and I cannot with any certainty inform your Lordship which way this Court stands affected for I find on the one hand
least pretend to have it and give Orders for Mourning before our English Envoy had any such Notice given so that when he came according to Custom to give them intimation of it all the Court was seen in Mourning before Night and all persons of Note in this City the next day I 'll leave your Lordship to Reflect upon the Transactions and Circumstances of it which tho comprehended in a few words may afford a larger Field for Thought than any thing my mind can at present suggest unto me or my Intelligence reach unto but it puts me in mind of somewhat I think I have writ in my last to your Lordship and so I suppose it may do your Honour if it has not already but I am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 22. 1635. N. S. LETTER I. Of King James when Duke of York his pervertion to the Popish Religion how and when it was done c. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot imagine how over-joy'd both Court and Country are here upon the News of the King 's going Publickly to the Roman Catholick Chappel upon His Assumption of the Crown and many and various Discourses it has occasion'd concerning His first Imbracing the Roman Faith an Account whereof may not perhaps be unpleasing to your Lordship And therefore I shall endeavour to gratifie your Honour therein to the utmost of my power some have been of opinion that the Zeal Example and Exhortations of the Queen His Mother to whom He seemed always to pay the greatest Deference had wrought this Change early in him and that the long Conversation he had had with those of the Roman Communion in France Flanders and other places had fortify'd him in the same Sentiments he had before imbib'd and which at last appear'd in an open Profession but however this has a very great appearance of truth it s utterly deny'd here and averred with great Elogium's upon him that it happened to him as it did to one of the Ancients as Recorded in Holy Writ that he should find in the Gall of a Monster that was about to devour him that wherewith to cure him of his Blindness For that it was in Reading of the History of the Reformation written by a Protestant Author that he came to see the Error wherein his Birth had engag'd him that when he was oblig'd when in Exile to leave the Kingdom of France and to retire to Bruxels and having leasure enough to Read he lighted there upon the History of the Reformation written by Dr. Heylin which he Read with much Attention and notwithstanding the many strained pretences say they which the Protestants made use of to colour the Schism of their Country he clearly saw that their Separation so plainly contrary to the Maxim of Unity which is the Foundation of the Church was nothing else but a meer effect of Humane Passions that it was the Dissolute Life and Incontinency of King Henry the Eighth the Ambition of the Duke of Sommerset the Pollicy of Queen Elizabeth the Avarice of those that were greedy to seize upon the Revenues of the Church had been the Principal Causes of that Change wherein the Spirit of God had no concern that upon reflecting with himself That God of old made use of Prophets of a most Holy Life to be the Guides of his People and to Intimate his will unto them in respect to Religion that upon the change of the Divine Dispensation the Apostles Inspired with Heavenly Vertue and more like to Disimbodyed Angels than Carnal Men Preached the Gospel and that upon Disorders and Irregularities both under the one and the other Testament They were not carnal persons Vindictive Souls Ambitious Spirits that had Preached Reformation but Men full of Moses's Spirit or of Christ's the only Channels worthy to receive the Waters which run from his Living Sources so as that there might be no room left to render them suspected of Corruption or Falsity he from thenceforward became a Roman Catholick in his heart That he had acquainted the King his Brother with it soon after the Restoration who highly Applauded him but engaged him to put that restraint upon himself as to keep it secret But that some years after having by his Conduct given occasion to others to observe his Steps more warily and finding he was not Cordial to the Protestant Religion and Interest they say here the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and two of his Brethren Remonstrated the same to him that he heard them with much Patience and did not decline to Confer with them but that their Conferences and Arguments were so far from Staggering and Seducing of him that they Confirmed him the more in the Faith And they say farther That tho' it was given out in England That the late Dutchess of York's Complaisance to the Duke her Husband had wrought her Conversion to the Romish Church in the Communion of which she dy'd yet it was notoriously false for that she was brought over by a very remarkable event next to a Miracle by Reading the same Book that had Converted the Duke But I shall trouble your Lordship no more with a Matter which I am sure you cannot think of without trouble of Mind and so I remain My Lord Your Honours to serve and Command Paris March 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER II. Of the Duke of Monmouth's being in Holland and King James's Design to seize him there Miscarryed My Lord THE Misfortunes of the Duke of Monmouth in the King his Father's time are beter known to your Lordship then I can pretend to inform you and that when he was forced to quit England for his own safety and that it came to be known he was retir'd into Holland the Duke and French Emissaries never left Importuning the King to send to the States and Prince of Orange to drive him from thence alleadging continually that there were very great Honours done him by the States and especially by the Prince of Orange who had given his Troops Orders to Salute him at their Reviews when-ever he came to see them designing thereby to make that Republick and especially the Prince of Orange more and more obnoxious to the King so that he gave at last Orders to His Embassador Mr. Chudley at the Hague to forbid the English Troops in that Service to shew the Duke any Respects Having gain'd this Point and that they might embroyl the King and Prince of Orange the more Chudley was Instructed to make the Officers of the said Regiments acquainted with the afore-mention'd Orders without first giving the Prince notice thereof under whose Command they were which they knew well enough the Prince could not but Resent as he did accordingly Threatning Chudley for Interfereing with his Authority without his leave and this upon the Embassador's Complaint to the King his Master and which was sufficiently Improved and Aggravated by the Duke and French Agents about him incensed him so against the Prince that he dispatch'd Letters to Chudley forbidding
Principles of the Reformed Churches that without I had had it from incontestable Testimonies I should not abuse your Lordship and hazard my Reputation with you so far as to mention it to you I know not whether I have formerly given your Honour to understand that it has been a frequent Practise here to put young Maidens of the Protestant Faith into Religious Houses to be tutor'd there in the Catholick Faith and where they have found the grossest Ignorance both of their Principles and Practises as ever would have entred into the Thoughts of rational Animals They have looked upon and entertained them as if they were such as had no Belief in JesusChrist and not only so but as such as did not pray to God but invoked Calvin or Luther only by others they were looked upon as Jews that had not been circumcis'd or did not eat any Swines-flesh With a thousand such Chimera's and Absurdities have the crafty Priests fillâ—d the Noddles of those simple Women who think all they say an Oracle But tho' many distressed persons have been extream Sufferers and felt the Effects of these Prejudices in a most rigorous manner yet we are not without Examples of others who when by their Piety Innocence and Knowledge they had disabused those who have the charge of them have been treated by them with much Tenderness and Humanity I would not my Lord have continued a Correspondence so little to your Honour's Information had I not lain under your Commands for my so doing and that you have always express'd your Satisfaction with my Endeavours to serve you who am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris July 7. 16â—6 N. S. LETTER XX. Of Mareschal Schomberg and the M. de Ruvigni's Retreat out of France and of the Favour shew'd to the Marquess du Quesne with the Reasons thereof My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship had acquaintance with Mareschal Schomberg when some Years ago in England you may perhaps see him there again in a short time for he hath with very great difficulty notwithstanding his many and signal Services for this Crown obtained Leave to depart the Kingdom but under very hard Restrictions the number of his Domesticks being limited and the Vessel wherein he embark'd view'd very narrowly The Court before his departure appointed him Portugal for his Retreat that so that same Country where he has been known for so many Victories might become unto him rather a place of Exile than Retreat The Marquess de Ruvigni had always some measure of the King's Favour but that together with all the Interest he has had with his Ministers of State were little enough to procure him Leave to retire with his Family into England but whether arrived there your Lordship can tell much better than I. As for the Marquess de Quesne tho' fourscore Year old and a person that hath deserved so much for his long and glorious Services and under whose Conduct the Naval Power of this Kingdom heretofore so inconsiderable was become formidable to all the World yet he hath not been able to obtain Leave to go finish his Days in a Protestant Country But the Court have complemented him seemingly with a great Favour viz. to continue in this City with Assurance he shall not be molested upon the score of his Religion but no doubt but this Favour hath proceeded more from Court-policy than any Good-will for they are it 's very likely afraid that had they granted him Leave to depart the Kingdom he might go and inform Strangers of the state of their marine affairs the Weakness and Defects whereof he knows as well as he can discover the Strength and Power of the same and as for the Liberty of his Conscience granted him they found that also expedient to hinder him to practise his escape by one Artifice or other if he were menaced with any Constraint I did not think once matters would have been brought to this pass here but when they are at the worst there will be Hopes they will mend as I hope I shall in my Intelligence to your Lordship who am My Lord Devoted to serve you Paris Sâ—pt 4. 1686. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Claude's Book entituled A Protestation in the Name of the Reformed winked at in France and King James made their Drudge to burn it in England My Lord TO think that your Lordship hath not seen and read Monsieur Claud's Protestation in the Name of the Resormed were to judge very disrespectfully and diminitively of your Curiosity and therefore for me to descant upon it cannot but be nauseous but give me leave to observe to your Lordship the different Procedure of the two Courts at this time tho' it s not doubted here and I hope in a short time to give you a further account of it but that they are entred into very close Measures and Designs together which will appear in due Place Nothing can be heard on this Side but the loud and dreadful Cry of Constrain them all to come in while our Emissaries in conjunction with their Popish Leyitical Brethren on your Side are a preaching up a general Indulgence to tender Consciences and a Sovereign Duty to grant equal Toleration to all Opinions and one would almost believe both are sincere But my Lord the Burning of the foresaid Book which is an Abridgment of the History of the Persecution by our King's Order under Pretence of its containing a Doctrine contrary to the Authority of Kings is an ill Proof of the latter and an half-sighted Man cannot but see that maugre all the Inclination that seems to be in the Court towards granting Indulgence to others their Designs must have quite another Tendency but I find this Court has got the Ascendency for they have cunningly enough judged it more profitable to dissemble the Injury they conceive they have received by the foresaid Book than to take a Publick Revenge for fear lest all the World should come to read a Piece that was so dangerous to them and obnoxious to their Interest and when they well knew they had formed a Tool to do that to their Hands with less Envy to themselves and more to When ever they required it I heartily beg your Lordships Pardon for my Freedom with you who am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Nov. 6. 1686. LETTER XXII Of the League made between King James II. and the French King Lewis XIV My Lord I Have once hinted to your Lordship That both Courts were entred into very close Measures and Designs for to establish themselves to the Prejudice of their Neighbours as I should have been and am very sorry to have disappointed your Expectations after such Intimations given you I do now as much rejoyce that I have tho' I may say surreptitiously got the Heads of the League lately made between them for it is here with our Minutes as with other things when they are fresh they are more choice and fond of
the Kingdom particularly those of Predestination and Free-Will nor yet to mixt Invective Reproaches Railleries and scandalous Expressions with their Controversies should be republished under a very strict Injunction of all Parties concerned to the observance of them and the least Transgression in that kind to be punish'd with the utmost Severity they did not question in the mean while but that in so ticklish a time there might be some one or other especially in the Diocess of London whom this Bird-lime might catch your Lordship knows how it fell out accordingly in the Case of Doctor Sharp Tho' they were mighty jealous of the old Gentleman of Canterbury that if he were nominated in the Commission and should chance to act which was the least of their Thoughts he should he might rather thwart than promote their Designs yet being pretty confident he would not concern himself with it they adventured to put him in not for his Authority but his Name-sake only for considered they should we get the Bishop of London once into the Toyl he will have no room to plead to the Jurisdiction of the Court seeing the same was founded upon the concurrent tho' in truth but nominal Authority of his Metropolitan to whom he owed Canonical Obedience these things your Lordship may know much better than I but I cannot forbear giving you any Hints of the Court-Designs which whether projected here or on your side we have constant Intelligence of in our I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. â—0 1687. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the Liberty of Conscience first granted in Scotland and then in England by King James II. My Lord YOur Lordship may call to mind what I have before written to you concerning Tolleration in Religion as necessary to facilitate the King's Designs and now you see it hath sprouted up in Scotland and the Buddings of it are visible enough in England that the Parliament of the former as well as the latter opposed the Dispensing Power is notoriously known so that there was much less Hopes they would have concurred to the Indulgence a Point as necessary to be gained every whit as the other that the Scotch Nation were more modelled to the King's Hand than the English the King himself well knew as having a personal Share in it when high Commissioner in that Kingdom in his Brother's Reign and the French and English Jesuitical Faction knew this as well as he and therefore I am assured both of them concurred to have the Indulgence given there first and that also in so partial a manner in favour of those of the King's Religion that the rest have hardly any Share therein which manifests plainly the Design of the English Catholicks whatever specious Pretence they may otherwise use is to bring the People of England also under the same nay a worse Yoke of Servitude and to have their own Religion predominant quickly and in Time the only one in both Nations And as for the third they are cock sure of that already but that of the French Emissaries is not so visible and above Board for they hope such partial Proceedings must at last incense the People of both Kingdoms and that to so violent a degree that the King must of necessity have recourse to call in French Force to quell them and then my Lord when they have once got sure Footing who can guess at their farther Aim however they have not with all their Intrigues been able to prevail with the King to use the same Partiality in England who according to the Transmission of their Intelligence hither seemed very much inclined to it upon their urging the Tractableness of the Scotch Council in the Matter and what a great Pattern they had set to them of England whom they did not doubt but would abrogate the Laws made against Roman Catholicks c. in imitation of them but a Roman Catholick Lord whom I have formerly named to your Lordship to have interposed upon the like Occasion thwarted them therein he deserves well of his Country in some respects and I do not question but your Honour is of that mind and so shall I be till I see more than I do now to incline me to the contrary who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and obedient Servant Paris Sept. 5. 168â— N. S. LETTER XXXI Of the French Projects to put King James upon desperate Measures in Ireland and their Ends therein My Lord YOur Lordship may remember how I have formerly given you the state of the Irâ—sh Soldiers in the Service of France during the late King's Reign and what Encouragement they have had here from time to time above any of the rest of the Brittish Nations and the large Promises that were now and then made That they should be reinstated in their ancient Possessions in their native Country But this King hath no sooner ascended the English Throne but that they have as readily return'd into England and Ireland as they were willing before even contrary to their Allegiance to remain in the French Service the Reason whereof your Lordship must needs know they having already devoured with their Eyes the most valuable Preferments in England and Ireland in the later whereof they have got a Lieutenant of their own stamp and more than all the Lands which they have been debarr'd from by the Act of Settlement having as I can assure your Lordship a previous Promise from this Court That the King will use all imaginable endeavours to get his Brother of England to consent to abolish it and which has put the Irish so hotly upon renewing their Importunities to the King against the said Act that he hath in a manner agreed to those measures that are pursuant thereunto in which motions the Irish were order'd to be effectually seconded by the Emissaries of this Court who at the same time have encourag'd the Irish privately with a Promise That if after all the King would not give his full Consent or durst not do them Right their Master was resolv'd to do it provided they would chuse him for their Protector which they might lawfully do being at best but a conquer'd Nation against their Conquerors for the recovery not only of their Native Rights in that Land but likewise of those afresh confirm'd to them by the Treaty whether pretended or real I will not determine upon that Head with the late K. Charles II of which the French King was Guarrantee and therefore justly might and ought to be call'd in as a Vindicator And this my Lord is confess'd here That they had form'd so strong a Party among the Irish that if the King had not in some measure comply'd or does not for the future but fail'd their Hopes by keeping it as the Interest of his Kingdom one should think naturally leads him to that side of the Ballance against France and maintaining the Act of Settlement they had bid fair as I have
been very forward to pay all the Devoirs due from a Son to a Father-in-law affecting much Zeil for his Interest and acting with his Ministers of State as if himself were the Prime of them Yet they desire him to consider the thoughtful and designing Nature of the Prince who to be sure was not wanting to observe every pace made by the English and to dispose of his own Affairs and People accordingly That His Majesty could not but remember the Applications made to him formerly in his Brother's Reign from England when he was but Nephew to the King and himself but now that he was advanced by his Marriage to a much nigher Degree to the Crown could it be thought that he had less Thoughts concerning it or less Application made unto him on that behalf especially in so ticklish a time That some persons of note 's going over lately into Holland was no sign he was unconcern'd at the English Affairs or unapplied to but must needs give Umbrage and more than a Suspicion that he had already a strong Party within the Kingdom and that indeed his Conduct without was next to a demonstration of it since he had done all that ever he could to hinder His Majesty from all the Succours he could expect from abroad in case of any domestick Troubles for tho' His Majesty was sure of France and had made a general Alliance with Spain and might then be apt to believe that the House of Austria would not oppose him especially when the Catholick Religion was the Dispute yet it was manifest the Prince had bid fair for the deoriving him of both those Supports first by entering himself and then by causing the United Provâ—nces to enter into the League at Ausburg against France to the end he might draw down upon that Monarchy the united Forces of the Confederates in case the French King should offer to attack the States Territories while he might make use of their Power both by Sea and Land to carry on his Designs against His Majesty and his Kingdoms And then that he had render'd the House of Austria very suspicious of His Majesty as being a Prince contrary to their Designs one in Interests and closely engag'd with France in a secret Treaty which would appear in due time I can assure your Lordship that by the Returns which have been made hither the King has been but too susceptible of these Calumnies against the Prince and I fear to his prejudice tho' I heartily wish it otherwise who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 11. 1688. LETTER XXXVI Of the Spaniards attempting to bring King James over to their Interest but failed My Lord HOwever the Emissaries of this Court have traduced the Noble Prince of Orange to the King yet they have in some sort given the Lye to themselves when notwithstanding all their Rhodomantade about the Prince's engaging the House of Austria against his Majesty they have been so alarmed at the Proposals made to him by the Spaniards of a stricter Allyance which they knew if entred into must invalidate that made with them the Emperor and King of Spain being suspicious of the Allyance with France had entred into a Confederacy with the Princes of Germany at Ausburg as I have hinted in my last and that they might make their Party as strong as they could and having at the same time no clear demonstration of our King 's private Leaguing with France they resolved to leave nothing unessayed either to know that it was really so or if not to engage the King in their Interest the Marquess de Gastanaga Govenour of Flanders and the Spanish Embassador Don Pedro de Ronquillo were the Persons employed by that illustrious House in that Affair it 's well known here that the latter has omitted nothing that could be done to bring the King over urging to him the Honour and Interest of such an Allyance that it was the only Opportunity he had left to recover the good Opinion of his Subjects who he must needs know himself were somewhat alienated in their Affections from him with a great deal more to the same purpose and he did at last proceed so far well knowing his blind as to engage if his Majesty would enter into and be cordial in such an Allyance to order it so that his Parliament should acquiesce with whatever he was then attempting to get established in respect of Religion which he could never effect by the Assistance and Agency of France their harsh Procedure against the Reformed there being too green and fresh in Memory to be so soon forgotten by the English who had besides a natural Aversion to that Nation and their Politicks But my Lord all that Don Ronquillo has done was communicated to the French Emissaries who presently took the Scent and being not willing to give the King space to demur upon the Matter lost no Time in remonstrating to him That they who had told him That he ought to take that Opportunity to gain his Subjects by entring into the League of Ausburg had not reflected upon the inconsequence that followed upon such a Procedure That that League now agitated was but the consequence of another made at Magdenburg by the Protestants in favour of the Hugonots and that it were against all good Reason and Sense that a Prince who did his utmost to procure a Liberty to Roman Catholicks in England should concur to re-establish the most rigid of Protestants in France besides it would argue no good Policy for him to forsake a solid Friend such as the French King was to joyn himself to such Princes who would no longer be useful to him than while they had need of him since the Protestants had already begun to over-reach their Piety so far as to draw them into Leagues formed against a Catholick Prince in favour of the Calvinists whom he had driven out of his Dominions wherefore the King made answer to Don Ronquillo in general Terms That as he would faithfully preserve the Allyance made between him and his Master so the same Fidelity obliged him not to violate that Friendship which was between him and the Most Christian King his Kinsman who was willing to live at Peace with his Neighbours and mantain the same as far as he could between them Thus my Lord this hopeful Overture was blasted the Consequence whereof I refer to him who knows all things and to whose Protection I commend your Lordship who am My Lord Your very obliged Servant to command Paris Mar. 16. 1688 N. S. LETTER XXXVII Arguments used to King James by the Lord Marquess of Powis Pope's Nuntio c. against a War with Holland My Lord THat the King pursuant to his late Allyances with this Crown designs a War in conjunction with the French Arms against Holland is no longer a Secret here whatever it may be in England especially since Don Ronquillo's Artifices to gain him over to the Austrian
Interest as I mentioned to your Lordship in my my last have failed tho' he were briskly seconded therein by the Lord Marquess of Powis the Pope's Nuntio and Emperor's Minister whose Reasons or rather Remonstrances to the King upon that Head for want of better Intelligence I shall at present take notice of to your Lordship as entred in our Minutes and which indeed were such that 't is a wonder he should withstand them sed quem Deus 1. They prest it very home upon him That such a War against the States of Holland could not be attempted with any apparent Advantage to his Majesty without a junction with the French Power which yet in all human Probability would never enable him to conquer those Provinces since both the Crown of Spain and the Emperor nay the Empire would be obliged to protect them to war with whom especially with Spain whose Trade as he well knew was most beneficial to England of any in the World would be attended with such manifest Disadvantage as all the Power of France were that King a faithful Ally would never be able to make the Nation amends for and that supposing he should be able to conquer the said Republick by the Assistance of the French Arms yet to conquer it by French Force would necessarily but make himself as well as that Nation a Tributary and Underling of France 2. That in all likelihood a War with Holland and against the House of Austria would disgust his Subjects and set them all against him yea and perhaps move some hot Spirits to form Designs to dispossess him of his Throne or at least so far to make Opposition as to knock on the Head all his fine Projects for the Advancement of his own Religion in England and engaging of his very Catholick Subjects against him 3. That if his Majesty intended the re-establishment of the Catholick Faith in England it was to be considered that the same was a Work of Time and required great Moderation but that they were sure the hot and furious Methods of France and the Jesuits would never effect it 4. That to them for the effectual bringing about of the said Work there seemed a kind of necessity that he should stay till the Discords between the Catholick Princes were so far appeased as to be without Danger of breaking out in a long Time for that all their Concurrence would be found to be little enough to enable him to accomplish his Ends therein 5. That if he should chuse rather to enter into a strict Allyance with the House of Austria against the French he would thereby render himself secure of his People's Hearts and Affections of the Dutch Naval Force to strengthen him at Sea as occasion required and of all the other Allies Forces to divert the French Armies by Land And that if he should lose upon that account as 't was likely any Remittances from France they assured him the Pope would allow him a much better Pension to countervail it and that being engaged against France his People would be so intent against the French and upon that War so agreeable to their Inclination that they would not be so very jealous of and so prying into the Advances he should make in the Change of Religion at Home and that if by that means than which nothing could be thought on more feasible he could not settle that Religion he might at least secure it and make Matters easie to those of his own Perswasion 6. That if his Majesty persisted to make War against Holland which would inevitably draw on one with the House of Austria if his Arms did not prevail so far as to come to an entire Conquest he was certainly ruined and all the Catholicks in the three Kingdoms along with him without resource and would perish unpitied and without any Hopes or possibility of Succour from any Catholick Princes but the French King alone and that if on the contrary as it was the most unlikely thing in the World he should prevail to a Conquest over Holland and his own Country that yet thereby he should under the colour of an imaginary establishment of the Catholick Religion in the Brittish Kingdoms but settle an irreligious Tyrant over all Christendom worse to the Catholick Religion and Christianity in general than any Heretick in the World nay than the very Turk himself and who would insolently trample upon the Pope's as well as his Fellow Princes Power and set up a new Empire and a new Religion of a third sort neither Catholick nor Protestant but such as suited with his own ambitious Designs as the Steps he had already made that way did sufficiently declare And so instead of resettling the Roman Catholick Religion where it had lost Ground and in the Soil of Great Britain which would prove but a Quick-Sand to it he would destroy it all over Europe where it was now established in terra Firma c. I le leave it to the Decision of your Lordship's Judgment whether these or the French Remonstrances carried most of Reason Probability and Truth in them as I ever shall all that comes from My Lord Your Honours most humble and obedient Servant Paris Apr. 30. 1688. LETTER XXXVIII Of the Differences continued between the Pope and the French King and of King James sending am Embassador to Rome to reconcile them My Lord I Have already transmitted to your Lordship the Contents of his Holiness's Letters to the French King about the Regale and Franchises but there seems now to be a Disposition in these two high stomach'd Princes to come to an accommodation and the Conjuncture of Time lies so to the Heart of this Court that I am apt to believe they will precipitate an Agreement however because their forwardness therein might be disguised as much as French Policy could effect they have by their Agents insinuated to our King That an Embassy to Rome from him about accommodating of the foresaid Differences must be very grateful to his Holiness who paid more deference to his Majesty and would further regard his Mediation than any Prince in Christendom and that tho' the French Court stood very stiff upon their Rights yet it was not to be doubted but as they had so high a Valuation for his Friendship at all Times and Occasions so he might be confident that in so critical a Juncture of Time they would not be so purblind as not to see wherein their true Interest consisted It was no sooner my Lord proposed to the King but accepted by him and my Lord Howard is already arrived in this Kingdom in his Way to Italy as the King's Embassador extraordinary on this Errand but notwithstanding this Court has so far prevailed by their Artifices in England to procure the Kings Mediation yet an Accident if it may be called so has lately happened at Rome which may perhaps blast all the blooming Hopes entertained from this mighty Negotiation For Monsieur Lavardin Embassador from
considerably augment the audaciousness of his Enemies who were more in number than he could imagine and that in short the only way to put both the one and the other to a profound Silence was by not flinching from that Resoluteness and Constancy which he had made to appear since the beginning of his Reign for if he once began to flag therein it would be quickly seen he would proportionably sink in Reputation That therefore great Care should be taken to retrieve this again since without that were done he must necessarily fall into a greater Contempt with his People than he was aware of and from whence many Inconveniences would arise which some of them could be as little foreseen as it would be hard to prevent them That therefore as the Case stood it were much more adviseable for him to run the Risque of another Tryal wherein if he succeeded his Sovereign Authority would be not only maintained and kept entire but the greatest Opportunity put into his Hands to extend the Bounds of it as far as he pleased but if it should happen otherwise and that the Bishops should be acquitted a second Time which as they designed to concert Matters was not very likely the Case would then be but the same and no other than now and as much to be feared from the one as from the other but it seems the King was so dispirited with the ill Success of the first Trial that they found him entirely averse to venture on another and therefore being not able to divert him from his Resolution of giving over that Game as lost they made it their Business to give out That the King was not minded the Bishops should have been cast that he had therefore given way that such a Jury should be returned and their Cause to be solicited by all their Friends as was a clear Demonstration that he had used all these Methods to deliver them from the Difficulties wherein they had plunged themselves with this Design and Hopes that the Sense of his Goodness might reclaim them back to their Duty and that for the future they might set a Pattern to others not to swerve therefrom but I do not find by the Returns made hither of these Expedients that they have met with any tolerable Success your Lordship may know much better than I how this Affair is relished in the whole and what is likely to be the Consequence and so I le leave it to your Determination and remain My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris Aug. 8. 1688. N. S. LETTER XL. Of the Prince of Wales's Birth with the Sense of the French Court upon it My Lord I have upon another occasion hinted to your Lordship what Appearance of Joy there was at this Court for the Birth of the Prince of Wales but they are now not a little mortified at the Pasquils put forth in England and Holland to render his Birth suspected and the whole to be only a piece of Court Legerdemain to carry on the Catholick Cause As for the later the designs carry'd on against the King and his Adherents as they are now no Secret to the World so 't is no wonder such Pamphlets are connived at Then for England it s an Argument the Reigns of Government are of late much slackened and that the Regal Authority is much in the Wain when the King and the Courts Honour is touched in so sensible a Part and yet that no Redress can be made thereof nor efficacious Remedy applied thereto but I must tell you my Lord That tho' this Court has not so much reason to be concerned as that in England in this Point yet such things dare not be much more than whispered here because that upon the first broching of his being a supposititious Prince there has been a very strict Charge given that none durst presume to speak of him otherwise than of a real Prince neither dare the Courtiers even in private so much as emancipate themselves to speak otherwise lest they should thereby besides transgressing the present Orders give also a Jealousie to old Lewis himself that they designed obliquely to revive the old Disputes formerly raised about his own Legitimacy but this I have heard them privately say That could they have gotten away one of our Princesses as I have formerly mentioned to your Lordship to be married here and had had thereby another French Heir to put in they believed the Prince of Wales would not be long-lived But these things my Lord are ticklish things to meddle with at such a Juncture of Time I pray God to keep your Lordship from all Harm and to increase the Honours of your Family and that I shall ever do whirst My Lord I am c. Paris Sept. 12. 1688. S. N. LETTER XLI Of the Prince of Conde's Feasting of Monsieur the Dauphine My Lord THat the Dauphine commands the King's Armies upon the Rhine I do not question but your Lordship has heard ere now about which Affair this Court seem at this Juncture to be wholly taken up â—o as that I have nothing of moment worth sending to your Honor But before Monsegnior's Departure the Prince of Conde has been pleased to regale him and all his Retinue and that in a most sumptuous and magnificent manner at Chantilli where several Ladies had also a Share in that Divertisement the Prince upon this occasion distinguished himself in a very extraordinary manner he presented himself before the Dauphine a great way in the Forest where there were Illuminations and received him in the Habit of the old Heathen God Pan accompanied with a curious Train all in Disguise like himself some like Shepherds and Shepherdesses others representing Satyrs leaping and dancing at the Sound of Hautboys Bag-pipes and such like Musical Instruments the Dauphine being in this manner conducted to the House which cannot be said to be superb and stately unless it be for the Gardens and Water-works about it he was himself feasted with a magnificent Supper and several other Tables were set for his Court where he continued for Five Days and was regaled in the same Plenty as at first and from thence returned highly satisfied to Versailles I must confess my Lord I could not forbear giving you this short account of the Entertainment tho'it be ridiculous enough especially in the Antick Preludium to it but I know your Lordship has Goodness enough not only to pardon me but to take in good part whatever comes from My Lord Your Lordship 's most obedient Servant Paris Sept. 16. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLII Of King James ordering Mass to be said on Board his Fleet and of his going on Board himself to engage the Officers to turn Roman Catholicks My Lord WHatsoever this Court is a doing in reference to the English Affairs at this Time there is little or no Appearance of it but they seem to be much concerned at the Disappointment our King has met with in not prevailing with the
Officers of his Navy Royal to become Catholicks for me to make a Relation of that Transaction to your Lordship I fear may be but Crambe bis Cocta but your Honour being now remote from the Court at your Country Habitation and that I believe we have here a truer account of that Affair transmitted to us by the Agents of this Court perhaps your Lordship will not think your Time ill spent in perusing of it Its seems the Commissioners which the King has sent to the several Counties of the Kingdom to dispose Men's Minds to a Willingness to take off the Penal Laws and Test having generally found a grand Aversion in the People to that Matter the King was so incensed at the Report they made of it and the invincible Stubbornness of the Nation that he convened his Cabinet Council and with them resolved to cashier all such out of his Service as would not fall in with his Designs But that all things might be opportunely executed it was agreed he should make himself sure first of his Fleet and his Army without whose Assistance they saw it was in vain to effect so sudden a Change at once wherefore he gave Orders that Mass should be said on Board his Ships but there was such Opposition made thereunto both by the Officers and Seamen that the Priests who went thither for that end were forced to hide themselves for fear of being thrown over Board which they had been like to have undergone had it not been that the Principal Officers who maintained still the Respect that was due to the King's Commands had done their utmost to hinder it But when the matter came to be represented to the King his Fury was raised to an high degree tho' he had for the Time the Artifice to dissemble his Resentment wherefore he resolved to try whether his Royal Presence might not operate more than his Orders and therefore he went on Board the Fleet himself and having commanded all the Officers to bring him their Commissions he there asked them Whether they were not resolved to change their Religion and imbrace his who had bestowed their Offices upon them in Expectation that they would do whatever he commanded them They were surprized at the Complement and expected no such thing nevertheless being resolved not to be frightened either with Menaces nor be gained by Flatteries they generally answered That how devoted soever they were to his Majesty's Service and their own Fortune yet they could not be enduced to any thing against their Consciences To which the King replyed That what he required of them could by no means be Prejudicial to them whatever their Ministers might tell them to the contrary that there was more of Opinion than Reason in the Religion which they professed that they should take the Pains to reflect duely thereon for which yet he would grant them but the Space of 48 Hours But tho' most of them did believe from Words so positive by the King they should certainly be casheered yet they resolved to split upon that Rock rather than alter whatever came of it The King in the mean Time who had trusty Spies in all the Ships having learnt their Resolutions for all his eagerness in the matter did not think it advisable to push on Things over far at that time wherefore he ordered they should be told when he sent them back their Commissions That the 48 Hours which he had alloted being not sufficient for the determining of an Affair of so great Importance he was pleased to allow them some further time to think of it but that they would please him to conform themselves to his Will on that occasion but in the mean time tho' the Politicks of this Court have been much used in England yet herein they have been laid aside and there is an essential Difference between the one and the other for in the Choice which our King makes of Officers he had rather they should have Service than Profit whereas in France they will have both the one and the other if they can and for want of which Profit is always preferred before Service I 'll not censure such an Attempt but I am ashamed we should be laughed at both here and in other Countries for our Politicks and your Lordship knows as well as any Man living that when wise and experienced Statesmen have sate at the Helm they never would suffer the Regal Authority to be put upon such an Hazard well knowing the least Resistance made thereunto is a Triumph to the People but speramus meliora I am My Lord Your Lordships to Command Paris Sept. 25. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the Count d'Avaux acquainting the French King with the Prince of Orange's Preparations against England My Lord THe Embassador of this Court Monsieur the Count d'Avaux at the Hague hath transmitted a positive account hither of the great Preparations made in Holland for some grand Expedition especially by Sea intimating that the Prince of Orange seems to have other Designs in his View than those of a vigilant Statholder for the maintaining the Dutch Fleets and Armies in a good Posture now other neighbour Nations are in Arms. You know my Lord Mr. Skelton is now Envoy in this Country from England as he was some time ago in Holland who while he was there whether really or maliciously I will not determine was pleased to transmit an account to the King of the Prince's holding Correspondence and carrying on some Intrigues with his Subjects to his Prejudice he had some Relations in the Princesses Family by whose means he had an Opportunity to inspect into some Letters from which he took upon him to pick out as much as gave him to understand that there were some Matters agitated underhand that tended to the King's detriment but as far as I could learn the King gave little hâ—â—d to his Informations But what the Count d'Avaux has given his Master an account of hath been esteemed worthy of Consideration and added here some Reputation to Mr. Skelton's Agency whatever it may do in England and I am assured my Lord from such Authority as I dare rely upon that the French King has prest his Brother of England to give that Heed to it which it deserves and to take seasonable Precautions to defend his Dominions from a powerful Invasion wherewith they are threatened My Lord I desire to know with the next Conveniency whether I may be free to continue my Correspondence with your Lordship especially if I find Matters of this Nature transacted for I would not for any thing in the World bring your Lordship into the least Praemunire but in all things study to serve you with exactest Diligence and humblest observance which I shall always strive to do who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Octob. 6. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIV Of the means whereby Mr. Skelton came to know of the Designs in Holland against King James and of
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against
the Royal Family and Interest he had strict Correspondence with one of King Charles's L who found a way to reconcile him to his Majesty and by his Mediation to the Duke of York That being now come to be Prime Minister of State to the King and almost the only one he had since his Elevation to his Brother's Throne he had served him with Zeal while there was a Prospect of Prosperity to attend him but that he hath now no sooner perceived that there is a Party formed against him but that he hath shewed himself ready to enter into a Correspondence with his Enemies against him That the Countess of S writing to the Princess of Orange That their Unkle H. S. a Man deeply engaged in that Interest was gone into Holland to attend the Prince was no small Proof of her Husband 's being engaged in the same Interests That there could be no other Construction made of the Violence done to the King his Master by his engaging of him notwithstanding all his Aversion to it to advance Father Petre against his own Inclination maugre the Opposition made by the Queen to it and in spite of the most essential Laws of the Order he was of to be one of his Privy Council That the King thereby in satisfying of him did on that occasion lose that Right which one should think he had to dispose of his own Subjects That nothing else could be inferred from this Lord's Procedure and Carriage in the imbroiled Affair of the Bishops which he brought on into the Council and which he yet favoured under-hand That it cannot otherwise chuse but that the Contempt which this Minister has affected of all the Informations given the King his Master of the Designs of the Prince of Orange his Son-in-Law and of the Dutch against him whereby he has in a great measure diverted him from using the means necessary to resist any Attempts made upon him or impressions on his Dominions must proceed from an ill Principle and Dissatisfaction to his Interests I hope your Lordship will not take this Freedom ill at my Hands which is nothing else but the Sense of this Court upon the present Occasion and with which I shall now conclude who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Oct. 28. 1688. LETTER XLVII My Lord S excused by others of the French Faction as to his Conduct in respect to the Prince of Orange's Design againg King James and his Adherents My Lord THe Censure of this Court upon the late Conduct of a noble Peer and Prime Minister in England as mentioned in my last to your Lordship is not so universal but that there are diverse others who have entertained a quite contrary Opinion of him and say That it is far enough from being an infallible Rule that a reconciled Enemy can never become a sincere Friend That it is possible a Man may reserve unto himself a place of Refuge and Retreat among a contrary Party and yet be far enough from falling in with its Interests That the Suspicions of him are without any manifest Ground since there is not the least Appearance that he hath personally linked himself with his Master's Enemies or held any Correspondence with them that tends to the betraying of him That what his Lady had done with the Princess of Orange tho' it might be lyable to Suspicions in such a Conjuncture is no sufficient Proof or Reason that the same Crime should be attributed to the Earl her Husband That Col. S tho' his near Relation might yet deceive him and make him believe that his Passage into Holland was to no other end than for the Benefit of his Health and a Journey to drink the Waters of the Spaw That to say he turned Roman Catholick that he might the better serve the Protestant Interest was so ridiculous in it self as to need no Consutation That as for the Business of Father Petre the Earl did nothing but what every wise Statesman would have done viz. to seek out one on whom might be discharged the Envy of such things as should displease the People in the Court-Conduct and so escape it himself That as for any Enterprise by the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders against so potent a King as his Master who was incompassed with so great an Army it might appear to be so extraordinary and strange a thing to him that he might believe it his Duty to neglect such Advices as things unlikely and not far from ridiculous And that now at length he finds himself obliged to believe them to be real those same Forces which the King his Master has on foot might make him opinionative to reject the Succours offered him from hence which he looks upon to be as well dangerous as unnecessary but which if the Censures is most agreeable to Truth I le leave to your Lordship's Determination and remain My Lord Your very obliged Servant Paris Oct. 31. LETTER XLVIII Arguments used by the French Agents to gain King James's Consent to receive French Succours into England and Answer'd by my Lord S My Lord YOur Lordship cannot but know of the Business of Cardinal Furstenburg about the Electorate of Cologn and how he is supported by this King whose Arms are advanc'd that way It may be you have seen Monsieur Bonrepos also at London whose Instructions were to offer to the King in his Master's Name That however his Forces are already advanced towards the Upper Rhine and ready to enter upon Action yet finding the danger His Majesty was like to be in from Holland he was willing to prefer his Interests who was his Friend before his own And that if he found the King demur upon the matter he was to tell him That His Majesty ought to consider the thing not as it was in itself but in the present circumstances of it That it might be justly feared his work was not to oppose only the Armies of others but that he should be well assured that those very Armies with which he design'd to resist his Enemies did not hold Intelligence with them and concurr against him in the same Designs That the chief Officers that commanded his Army were faithful to him to such a degree as to be Proof against being corrupted which could not be said of the other parts of the State who were wall known to be corrupted which his Army if they did not already must shortly know from whence he was to infer that if the same Corruption should unfortunately happen to creep into the Army as well as elsewhere the King in refusing foreign Succours which in conjunction with those who should prove faithful Subjects to him would make at least a Party would leave himself expos'd without any defence to all the Forces of his Enemies My Lord you cannot imagine how highly dissatisfied this Court is at the rejection of their Aid and that my Lord S 's remonstrating to the King That the introducing a foreign Army into his
Dominions that were Romdâ—-Catholicks and especially Frenchmen would wound his Reâ—â—tation very deep and quite alienate the Nations Affections from him and be a confession of all the Rumors which had been seatter'd abroad of a private League made between him and France for oppressing both the Liberty and Religion of his Country And besides the King had Forces enough of his own and to spare for the resisting of all the Efforts of Holland That his Fleet alone was able to stop them and that let it be as it would his Land Army could not fail of being Conquerors over them being both much more numerous and withal better disciplin'd had entirely fixed him in the said Resolution I do not question but this Court will do the Earl all the Disservice they can for spoiling so brave an opportunity of their getting â—ooting with their Troops in England however he has served his Country and deserves well of it whatever his Fate may be I am My Lord Yours in all humble Observance Paris Nov. 2. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of Mr. Skelton's Negotiations in France with the Reasons of his being recoeli'd and committed Prisoner to the Tower of London My Lord I Cannot conceive but they are as much in the dark with you about Mr. Skelton's Imprisonment in the Tower upon his arrival in England as they are concern'd for it here I have already given your Lordship an account of some of his Negotiations both in Holland and at this Court and with your Honour's leave shall endeavour a little further to unriddle this Mystery of his Imprisonment When all the Arguments of this Court used by Monsieur Bonrepos to induce the King to admit of some French Troops into his Country under pretence of assisting him against the Prince of Orange were obviated by my Lord S 's Remonstrances and Assiduities you cannot conceive the concernedness that appeared here at the grand Disappointment Mr. Skelton was almost oppress'd with Enquirers into the reason of such a Procedure not knowing well then from what Quiver the Arrow was taken that shot down the Goliah of all their Hopes of once nestling in England who examin'd interrogated him and almost laid it to his charge that their Advice was not follow'd But having at length found it to be otherwise they resolved to put him upon another Expedient mention'd first by himself to serve his Master as they said tho' nothing is more certain than that it is their own Interest they design'd mainly thereby For one day after Monsieur de Croissy had prest him hard still to sollicite his Master to accept of the Troops and Ships offered him by France and that Mr. Skelton answer'd That it was in vain he having Orders to meddle no further in that matter and therefore durst not move in it He also added That yet he was of Opinion that if his most Christian Majesty would order his Ambassador to acquaint the States-general what share he took in the Affairs of the King his Master and to threaten to attack them in case they undertook any thing against him he did believe that would quickly put a stop to the intended Invasion and spoil the Measures the Prince of Orange had concerted thereupon without giving the English occasion to complain their King had called in Foreigners into their Country That this would be an effectual means to keep part of the King's Enemies on this side the Sea and they might have leisure enough to break off the Cabals which the other formed at home against him This Discourse made Monsieur de Croissy hasten to acquaint the King with it who liked it so well that he immediately dispatched away a Courier to Monsieur the Count d'Avaux his Ambassador at the Hague with Orders to declare to the United Provinces That they could not attack the King of England who was so intimate a Confederate with him but that he must be obliged to succour him with all the Assistance he could The States having paused a little for an Answer to this Memorial and presently upon it being encounter'd with another from the Marquess de Albeville the English Ambassador there they answered the latter They were long since convinced of the League between the two Kings That they had armed in Imitation of other Princes c. which being interpreted here that the States were resolved to go on with the Invasion It raised the Expectations of this Court that the tender of their Troops would be still accepted of by the King But the vigilance and sagacity of my Lord S disjointed also this Project and ended in the Recalling and Imprisonment of Mr. Skelton for moving in an Affair for which he had no Orders And this also my Lord has stopped Verace the Genevese whom I have formerly mentioned to your Lordship who is come to Paris from proceeding on his Journey for London as supposing it to no purpose to give such Informations as would not be regarded and he is now I hear about returning back to his own Country I hope things are well with your Lordship in these times of difficulty had it been otherwise I do suppose I should have heard it that I might have stopped my Intelligence and that all may continue to be well with you is the unfeigned Desire of My Lord Your Lordships most obedient Servant Paris Nov. 8. 1688. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Prince of Orange's landing in England and Success with King James's Speech to his Chief Officers My Lord THo' the French Arms this year have had mighty success on the Rhine yet the landing of the Prince of Orange in England without any opposition and the success he has met with since his arrival together with the desection of some Horse to him under my Lord Cornbury tho' they say here but a very small number has damped all their Rejoycings And indeed if we may judge of their Hearts by their Looks we may see plainly that they have given over not only their own Game on that side of the Water for lost but that they look upon that of the Kings so too almost beyond all hopes of recovery but yet that they may make some semblance of Zeal still for his Service their Creatures have advised him to call together his chief Officers and to tell them That he had given Orders for the calling together of a Free Parliament as soon as a more setled time would give him room to hope for such That he had resolved to provide for the Security of the Religion Liberties and Privileges of his Subjects as far as they themselves could desire or wish for Could there any more he expected from him he was ready to grant it but desired if after all this there was any one dissatisfied that they might declare it That he was ready to give unto such as thought not fit to tarry with him Pasports to go to the Prince of Orange and that he would freely pardon them their shameful Treason This Speech and the effects
delivered and to inspire your Lordship and other worthy Patriots sit such a juncture with a proportionable Zeal for the good of it and so I rest My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 5. 1689. S. N. LETTER LIV. Upon the Throne 's being declared Vacant by the Convention the French Emissaries were to endeavour to embroil the Nation about the Form of Government to be established among them My Lord I Know not how it is in England but Men's Wits here have plaid so liberally upon the Word Abdication started in your Convention and such Railery and Buâ—tle made about it as can scarce be believed by any without he were an Eye and Ear-Witness of it and believing at the same time they would never make any thing of it but that the Precautions they had taken to mannage the Upper House would fully answer their Expectations the Grimaces they have since made upon their receiving certain Advices That the Throne has been declared Vacant are not so surprizing for one is a natural Consequence of the other as they are sudden and ridiculous Tho' they are not yet quite out of Hopes for their Emissaries have received previous Instructions That in case their Remonstrances to the Lords as mentioned in my last would not do that then they should chiefly turn their Batteries upon the Members of the Lower House by infusing Notions into some of one sort of Government as the best To others another to gain Time thereby and concert mutual Iealousies between the Parties which would not fail of making the Prince weary of such endless Wranglings and so make him either assume the Government by vertue of his own Power and Authority Or else seeing no Hopes of any Settlement and that the Factions were so strong as not to be quelled and so obstinate as not to be reconciled to retire home and leave them in a far worse State than he found them The Republican Party which they knew to be but very few They are to ply warmly with the Fitness of the Opportunity to set up a Free State once again that perhaps the Prince of Orange would be better pleased with it provided he were made Stadtholder as he was in Holland and greatly promote it if he saw once a tendency in any considerable Members that way that a Regency which was like to be proposed upon the declaring the Throne Vacant could not be thought to be so agreeable to him who knew well enough the publick Evils that were annext to such an Office but that if it should so happen that the major part should carry it that the Regal Dignity and Office should be continued and that in the Person of another than King James and that by natural Consequence it must be offered to the Prince of Orange yet surely they could not be so far wanting to themselves as not to stickle that he might receive the Crown under such a Title as might come as nigh that Form of a Republick as might be and lay a sure Foundation for the Introduction of it when things were riper at another Turn of Government which under such Circumstances could not chuse but quickly happen And what could they better do than to get the Kingdom declared Elective which as it was a Debasing and Diminution of Hereditary Succession so it was a great Step towards the erecting of a Popular Government once more which the Treachery and Hypocrisie of one at the Head of it had destroyed in the present Age when it was in a fair way of giving Laws to all the Neighbour Nations round it They have been further instructed That if they found any disposed to favour the Title of Conquest so far to promote it as might in some Measure give Check to the other Factions but by no means to overballance them But that these Practices may have as little Success as those mentioned in my last to your Lordship is the earnest Desire and Hope of My Lord Yours Lordship's most humble Servant Paris Feb. 15. 1689. N. S. LETTER LV. Of the Prince and Princess of Orange being Proclaimed King and Queen of England c. My Lord THis Court is Thunder-struck that all their Counter-Plots and Designs have been rendred so ineffectual in England where heretofore they seldom used to miss their Mark and that they come to be assured by repeated Advices that the Prince and Princess of Orange are declared King and Queen of England c. and what adds greatly to the Mortification is the Circumstances of it both as to the Title whereby they are declared and the People of England's previous aâ—â—erting their Native Rights and Legal Privileges so vigorously and thereby casting such an Odium upon the late Government as can hardly be obliterated and forgotten in this Age And now they begin to think what may not they fear from a Prince who has been so much injured by them had always the Honesty as well as Courage and Constancy to oppose their Incroachments and now by this mighty Acâ—â—ssion of Power has means enough to put a Check upon their exorbitant Greatness and perhaps force them to disgorge what they have been devouring of their Neighbours for many Years past which I heartily long to see effected and wish King William and his Royal Consort may be happier than Augustus and better than Trajanus and that your Lordship may flourish under them whom I shall ever loue and Honour tho' I cannot at present serve because of the Difficulty of Safe Conveyance to your Hands and therefore till I can settle a sure and safe Correspondence upon this Change of Government with your Lordship I remain My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Feb. 27. 1689. N. S. FINIS
THE SEâ—â—â—T HISTORY OF White-Hall FROM THE Restoration of Charles II. Down to the Abdication of the late K. James Writ at the Request of a Noble Lord and conveyed to him in Letters by late Secretary-Interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois who by that means had the perusal of all the Private Minutes between England and France for many Years The Whole consisting of Secret Memoirs which have hitherto lain conceal'd as not being discoverable by any other Hand Publish'd from the Original Papers By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVII THE PREFACE I Do not question but the Reader will expect somewhat should be premised by way of Satisfaction to such Scruples as may be suggested in general concerning the Authentickness of the ensuing Letters which as I conceive they are reducible to the following heads viz. An Account of the Author and the Means whereby he got his Intelligence the Verity of the Matters related the Nature of the Correspondence and what part the Methodizer has had in the Undertaking so I shall endeavour to give as distinct and satisfactory a Solution of each Particular as may reasonably be expected from me or the Circumstance of the Things will justly admit of First then for the Author and his Intelligence The first time he went over into France was in the Year 1675 where he had not stay'd above a Year but that the place of General Commis or Clark of the Dispatches and Particular Commis Interpreter to that great French Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois for the Affairs relating to our Three Kingdoms falling vacant by the Death of one Mr. Kilpatrick a Scotchman ' s Son that same Imployment was conferred by him upon a Frenchman a Favourite of his named Belou Who understanding no English and therefore not being able to manage the Affair without an English Man our Author was recommended to him for that service as he hints in his first Letter which yet you are to Note by the way was not the first he writ from that Country to that Noble Person he corresponded with and to whom he was previously engaged to transmit all the Intelligence he could learn of the Proceedings of the French Court before he entred upon the said Imployment but they being not very material he took no care to reserve the Transcripts by him and continued to be Interpreter of the English tongue till after the time of our Grand Revolution when he came over into England where his stay was not long but that he was imployed by the same Noble Person to return into France again where the dangerous part he was to Act may be better conceived than now exprest but concerning which you may hear more hereafter It s no hard matter to imagine what Qualifications were necessary to recommend our Author to the Imployment afore noted and how far his out-side must differ from his in-side during his aboad there which together with that part which he has Acted in that Kingdom since his present Majesty King William ' s Accession to the Throne and that he knows not how soon he may still be engaged to return though he be at present in London are Reasons of themselves without superadding any other of the many that might be produced more than sufficient for the suppression of his Name and of my being engaged in the Work which yet rather than Truth should suffer I am satisfied he will be as forward to render as well known to the World as 't is to that Noble Person who has imployed him I am of Opinion the Reader will be much better perswaded of the verity of the Facts as well as much more pleased with the new Discoveries of State-Mysteries he will meet with here by the perusal of the Work himself than by any thing I can pretend to say in the Defence of the one or the Commendations of the other And were it not to obviate a vulgar Error and Objection that I foresee would be made upon this Subject That all that could be Writ has been written already concerning the late Reigns I should dismiss it But now I am necessitated not to single out but promiscuously to call to mind a few Heads for to make an Enumeration of all the remarkable Particulars were to run through the Contents of every individual Letter and to ask the Objector where it is he meets with an exact Account of the Private League between King Charles the Second and the French King The Duke of York ' s secret Correspondence with that Court Coleman ' s interventien with both for his own Advantage The Interest the French made both in England and Holland among the several Sects and Parties of Men to prevent the late Queen's being married to his present Majesty The Methods concerted to Trapan her into France with her Father's concurrence and how prevented Father St. Germain's attempting King Charles the Second in his Religion with the King's Answer c. His unseasonable boasting of it the Occasion of his flight into France and the Censure he underwent from those of his Order for it Coleman ' s Wife's Petition to the French King the Answer and her destroying her self Monsieur le Tellier ' s Speech about the Invasion of England the Duke of York his pervertion to the Church of Rome King James his Private League with France when Regnant the Essay made by Don Ronquillo the Spanish Ambassador to draw him into the Austrian Interest with his Answer and Refusal in savour of France How Father Petre came to be made a Privy Councellor wherefore Mr. Skelton was imprisoned in the Tower c. which to name no more though the rest are of equal curiosity as they had in all likelihood been for ever buried in the profoundest Oblivion had not the Fate and Address of this Gentleman led him to fetch them out of the Dark and almost inscrutable Recesses of the French Cabinet-minutes so the Reader will find they carry so much Evidence of Truth with them not only by the Connexion they have with many material Passages in Sir William Temple ' s Memoirs Mr. Coke ' s Detection of the Court and State of England during the Four last Reigns c. but by so natural an unfolding of what is obscurely or but transiently hinted at by those learned Authors who could not see beyond their light and yet so remote from those Scurrulities as well as Inconsistencies to say no worse which occur in some other pieces of the same Reigns that it were a Crime to make any farther Apology for them Yet it may be noted by the way that this same doth evince the necessity of this Supplemental Part as well for the detecting of past Falsities as for the perfecting of past Discoveries And 't is hoped no body will quarrel that this Piece which is Entituled by the Name of a Secret History c. should be written in an
Charles IId's Restoration with their Answers to the Queen-Mother's Resentments thereupon My Lord ACcording to the Expectation I may have raised in your Lordship by my last of some Notable Intelligence from me I am to acquaint you with what perhaps you will hardly believe that this Court considering the near Alliance between the Burbonian and English Royal Family should as much as once think to obstruct the King's Restauration to the Throne of his Ancestors but for my part I clearly find there is neither Father Brother nor Cousin between Kings and Kingdoms and that France used the utmost of her Policy at that time to keep us Embroiled at Home while she might have her Hands loose to play her Game Abroad but because I conceive it may not be ungrateful to your Lordship to understand what those Stratagems were which they own themselves to have practised upon that Occasion I shall briefly hint them unto you as I find them entred here in their Cabinet-Minutes Monsieur Bourdeaâ—x was then their Ordinary Embassador at London whose Instructions were both by himself and several other Emissaries which they had there to raise all the Jealousies imaginable in the several Factions of Monk and his Adherents and at the same time to make Overtures to Monk to assume Oliver's Post and Power urging with great vehemency that he might with much more Justice and Security do it as having what the other had not a President before him but tho' that General refused the Proposal and was proof against all their Attacks of that kind saying he would not split his Family upon that Rock against which the Cromwell's had dasht but would wave all Ambitious Projects of his own Grandure that were indirect and pursue only those that consisted with his Countreys good and that they saw at last it was in vain to attempt the Union of the stronger Factions at Home either against Monk or the King's Restoration they resolved to try what might be done Abroad to work them into a Temper and therefore to raise Jealousies in them from their Neighbours they did in March 1660. Defile several Battalions of Foot towards Calais giving out at the same time that their Design was to Besiege Dunkirk in Conjunction with the Spanish Forces and that after the Place was taken by them it was to be delivered up to the Spaniards pursuant to an Agreement made between them that the latter had consented to give up Cambray and some other Places to the French in lieu of it at which proceedings of theirs the Queen-Mother then in France taking the Alarm she briskly remonstrated unto them the unnatural part they acted considering the near Ties of Blood in her Person between the Royal Families of France and England and how dishonourable it was to oppose the Restitution of a Prince which they were bound to promote even by Arms tho' he had been no ways Allied to them but she was answered that there were many Reasons of state which superceded all those Scruples that for her part she might be assured she should be as well provided for as otherwise that it was not safe for her Son to be brought in purely by his own Subjects but that if they both would have a little patience they did not question but they had taken such Methods so to embroil and weaken England that there would be quickly room enough for the French King to bring him in in a much more Glorious manner so as that he might be Absolute Master of his Subjects and have his Royal Authority no more to depend upon the fickle and changeable Temper of a Perfidious Nation nor be in danger to receive any check from Parliaments that would sooner or latter prove Factious and Dangerous to his State that it was visible the Spaniards had a great hand in promoting such a Revolution in England and therefore they desired her to consider how dishonourable it would be to the House of Bourbon to suffer it and how dangerous such a Conjunction of England and Spain which would naturally follow against them would be she her self might judge and that therefore since a little patience would Infallibly retrieve the whole Game to their Interest and much more to her Satisfaction they could do no less than pursue the Methods they had taken and make both her and her Son happy tho' it were against their Wills that she was much in the wrong to judge of Things by present Appearances that they were assured however Matters might be concealed from her the Conditions proposed to the King her Son by his Subjects were little to her Satisfaction when they imported no less than that her two younger Sons of the Elder of whom she had conceived greatest Hopes and her self must never set footing on English Ground and that the King himself must Marry a Protestant Heretick and suffer no Roman Catholick to live in his Dominions But when they found all their Politicks had failed them and that the King was restored in spight of them according to his Hearts Content they afterwards fell upon other Stratagems put in due time in Execution to work upon his Easie Nature and to render his Power more serviceable than hurtful to their Designs tho' the King who was yet sensible of the Injuries done him upon his Arrival in England ordered Bourdeux to withdraw out of his Dominions this is the substance of what I find entred here in reference to this particular and all I have now to Communicate which if I find it relish with your Lordship I shall not fail to lay hold of all Occasions to demonstrate how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble c. Paris Feb. 19. 1676. N. St. LETTER III. Of several Matches proposed to King Charles the Second by the French Court with his Answers and Rejection of the same My Lord IT 's not unknown to your Lordship that one Topick in the French Politicks has been now for many Years to bring their Neighbour Princes into their Interests by procuring them Wives and the French Women have had an Excellent Faculty to bring over their Husbands into the Gallican Noose tho' apparently to the hazard of themselves and their own State so that quite failing in their end to obstruct the King's Restoration they now attempted to Entrap him with a Wife I understand there were several French Matches proposed to him during his Exile and among others a great Lady whose Name I cannot now remember who had like to have been afterward Married to the Prince of Conde and whom the King hotly Courted when in France but because he was refused by her then he in his turn refused her when Restored tho' in reality such a proffer on their part was no more than to sound his Disposition towards Marrying a French Woman in general for if he had consented to have taken this Lady to Wife the French Court would not have suffered it because she was a Martial Lady and of the contrary
all their Hopes dashed to pieces and therefore they stood still for a Time to see what so mighty a Revolution in England might produce and what mighty things a King in the Vigour of his Years whom they had sufficiently provoked during his Exile so high in the Love of his Subjects the ancient Emulators of the French and the People now in the most Martial Posture that ever they were in since England was a Nation would undertake but finding all were Haleyon Daâ—s and that then there was no apparent Disposition in our Court to make any Incroachment on their Neighbours the French Ministers began to re-assume fresh Hopes and to consider what Expedients might be proper for to promote their Designs which now for some time had lain Dormant one Project was that of the Match mentioned by me to your Lordship in my Last which succeeding so well and finding still that the King was far enough from designing any War for the enlargment of his Territories they resolved to make an Essay and see whether he was willing to part with any thing that was already his own I do suppose your Lordship may have heard of Cardinal de Retz being in disgrace at the French Court of his being forced to flee the Kingdom of his being at London incognito some time after the Restoration what he was publickly accused for in France was that he had favoured the Adverse Party about the Point of the Legitimacy that he had invited Madamoisell d' Orleans to aspire to a Match with our King and Abetted the Pretensions of Rome against those of the Court about the then growing Difficulties concerning the Regale but what ever the Reasons were they were never Published nor suffered to be so much as entred in the Minutes of other Secrets but this is certain that our King interceded with the French King on his behalf and that he was admitted to return and I have been assured it was by the way of Dunkirk and was sent afterward Embassador to Rome but whether all this was a Juggle to carry on a Negotiation about Dunkirk I will not positively affirm but it looks as much like a French Trick as one Egg does another That the Spaniards pressed our King very early for the Restitution of Dunkirk is uncontroulably true and made pretty large offers and it is as true that the King rejected their Proposals which yet did not discourage the French Emissaries of whom they had by this Time many in England as the Minutes shew who having ingratiated themselves with the Chancellor and other hungry Courtiers made also their Overtures and told the King withal that Cromwel was to have that Town only for a Temporary Caution for so much Money due to him for his Assistance against the Spaniards and that therefore it was a Matter of Right they insisted upon seeing they were now ready to lay down the Summ with more then Interest nay and they were so bold as to tell him farther that if he refused to give it for Money they would endeavour to recover the same by a War and questioned not the Junction of the Hollanders with them both by Sea and Land in that Case they being as unwilling as the French that the English should have footing so near them on the Continent and in effect they made use of the Dutch Faction and some Jews their Emissaries in England more then any Body else to bring that Affair about and because they would be sure to meet with no Obstructions from the Spaniards by renewing their Instances to the King and alleadging a greater right to the Town then the French they amused them with a Design they had to restore it to them again upon a reasonable equivalent in Flanders and gave it out that they had entred into a Treaty already with them upon that Head but whether it was so in Reality I cannot tell and this is all that I am able to inform your Lordship concerning our parting with that Important Place Only that the summ paid for it was two Millions and five hundred thousand Lirves and so I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 4. 1676. N. St. LETTER V. Overtures made to King Charles II. for the Sale of Tangier to the French and how prevented My Lord THe French having as I have given your Lordship an Account in my Last gained their Point in the buying of Dunkirk whereof the French Forces took Possession about October in the Year 1662. they paused a little to see how the English would resent it before they would make any further Paces for the Promotion of their Cause to our Disadvantage but finding the Memory of the Anarchical Times together with the Nation 's according the Example of the Court daily degenerating from the Severity of Manners in Former Times had in a manner laid them fast asleep and quite obliterated all Thoughts of Military Glory so far as if there had been a sudden Transmutation of the Genius of the People they resolved to make another Essay upon the easie temper of the King and try whether he would also part with Tangier unto them but whether it were that the King was sensible already of his Mistake in parting with Dunkirk or that this very Motion of theirs put him upon considering what he had done and the great Error he had committed in Policy thereby it is certain he gave them an absolute Denial and that their Minutes speak but say withal that to be revenged of his Denial and make him odious after their usual Manner this Court ordered it however to be reported as if he had been willing for it and further add that the Kings real Answer was that Tangier being his Queens Dowry to whom he had not long been Married it would not at all suit with his Honour to sell it neither could he well part with it unless he parted with Her that it was by Parliament annext to the Imperial Crown of England and so could not be Sold without them that if both He and his Parliament too might be willing to sell it at another Time yet to be sure it was not proper to think of it just then when after so much Treasure and Blood spent upon it already it might if ever prove of some use to the Nation in the War then like to begin with the Dutch that he could not part with it to the French King so well as to any other Christian Prince nay not so well as even to the Moors themselves without giving a very just and therefore a dangerous Cause of Jealousie to his People especially in that Juncture when by the Carriage of the French he had great Cause to suspect they were Jealous of his grandeur at Sea and would joyn with the Dutch against him which refusal of his I must tell your Lordship was indeed one of the secret Causes among others why they soon after actually joyned with that Nation to diminish our Power to sham
related concerning his Conduct at the Time of that dreadful Conflagration of the City looking upon it Janus-like with one Face seeming concerned for the lamentable Disaster and with the other rejoycing to see that noble Pile reduced to Ashes and its Citizens ruined who had at all Times been the greatest Propugnators for Liberty and Property and opposers of that Religion which he now not only secretly profest but was even ready publickly to own and rewarding those Incendiaries at St. James who then were suspected generally to be French Men as your Lordship well may remember but by our Minutes it does appear they were not such but they were Persons at least many of them set on Work by French Councils and such as at that Time were of all Men least suspected I mean Jews of which they had then several in pay not only in England but all over Christendom not only to give them Intelligence in which they are wondrous Active but likewise to promote and act the worse of mischiefs as which they make no baulk By these Fires have been kindled not only in England but in Germany Poland and elsewhere which the Germans imputed to Turkish Emissaries though they were Jews hired with French Money the Turkish Policy not being so refined in Mischief these sorts of Jews put on the shape of what Christians they pleased and of this sort imploy'd by France there were and are still several in England the Names of one or two of which I think I shall be able to give your Lordship in sometime though they go by several as Time and Occasion doth require and so at present I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris April 7. 1676. N. St. LETTER VIII Of the French Irruption into Flanders in the Year 1667. My Lord THe Dutch War I have in a former Letter mentioned to your Lordship being ended by the Treaty at Breda July 9th 1667. the French gained all the Ends they proposed by it and more particularly as to what I have before hinted that both our King and People were now glad to be quiet that some Disreputation was thereby cast in our Nation but more on the King and Government which began to ingender new Discontents and Factions amongst us which they took care to foment that they might make use of them afterward and that they having lately obliged the Dutch thought now they might venture to extend their Limits in Flanders and try what Fortune their Monarch would have against Spain being his first undertaking since he took upon him the Management of Affairs after Mazarines Death wherefore new Pretensions were advanced for the Queen of France which though most learnedly and more then sufficiently answered by that renowned Statesman the Baron d' Isola in his Treatise called The Buckler of State and Justice and which I think I have seen in your Lordships Closet yet it put no stop to the French Carreer but on they carried the War and that with such rapid Success that they not only ravaged Artois Hainault and other Parts of the Netherlands in a short time but also took Charleroy Oudenard Aeth Courtray and Lisle besides what was done by them in the Franch County and Burgundy but your Lordship is so well versed in things of this kind that I shall forbear further to trouble you and shall only tell you that after the Spaniard had suffered great loss and that the Dutch being both obliged by Treaty and alarmed at the too near Encroachment of so Potent a Neighbour assisted the Spaniard with some Forces which the Monsieur well observed but for the Time dissembled it though he resolved both to remember and make use of it when opportunity was put into his Hands one way or other to his Advantage the Intervention of the Tripple League did for the present put a Hook in his Nose and so he claps up a Peace with the Spaniard in 1668. with a Design to break it as soon as ever his Hands were let loose and so I shall conclude this Letter with my humble Thanks to your Lordship for my last re And hope I shall in my next be able to impart somewhat that will be more entertaining till when I shall and ever will be ready My Lord To serve and Honour you Paris April 11. 1676. N. St. LETTER IX The Dutch allarm'd at the French King's Irruption into Flanders sent a Letter to King Charles II. about it a Copy of which Letter was transmitted to the French Court. My Lord IF the Dutch underhand assisting the Spaniard as I have mentioned in my last set the French King upon Thoughts of Revenge a perusal of the Contents of the States Letter to our King upon the account of his Encroachments whetted his Fury to an high Degree but all was smothered for the present there being many rubs that lay in his way that must first be removed what the Contents of the said Letter was may be easily guessed at but the sight of any true Copy of it I could ne're get the general rumour concerning it was that our King should send it as soon as he had read it to the French King but the Minutes say it was only a Copy of it that was transmitted into France and that not by the King but that it was Surreptitiously gotten from the Secretaries-Office and sent to that Court but that however they ordered their private Agents both in Holland and England to report that our King sent it that they might provoke the Hollanders to use such Carriage towards him as might dispose him to join with the French in a new War against them which they had a Design to put him upon in revenge of that Letter and of the Succours the Dutch had sent the Spaniards though no more then they were obliged to do defensively pursuant to the Tenour of their Peace with Spain of which War with the Preliminaries tending to it I shall not fail to transmit your Lordship an account and such in many particulars as I do not Question but will be very grateful to your Lordship Whose Humble Servant I am Paris April 18. 1676. N. St. LETTER X. A View of the State of the Reformed in France from the beginning of Lewis the Fourteenth's Reign to the Year 1669. My Lord THE Reformed in the Kingdom of France since the King came himself to the Administration of the Government had rather been retrench'd in their Liberties and declined in Power than otherwise whereas while Mazarine was Minister of State he notwithstanding the Queen Mother's virulancy against them whether it were to Cajole Cromwell and their then Governing Powers in England or out of his avertion to the Clergy in general of whose Abilities as well as Honesty he had no great Opinion things went tolerably well with them but now that the French King found himself couped up with the Triple League and considering that any rigorous Procedures against the Protestants in his own Dominions would at this
time be interpreted much to his disadvantage by those of other Nations and particularly that there was no hopes to break the said League or to disunite it especially the King of England of whom he conceived the greatest hopes and had the greatest Eye upon as being not only nearest but also most powerful of any of the rest it was resolved to put forth an ample Declaration in Favour of the Reformed which revoked several unjust Judgments given against them and remedied many Important Difficulties and Severities they laboured under whereof they had made their Complaints to the King and which gave them hopes that they should for the future be left to live in Tranquillity and Peace They knew well enough unless this were done there was no very great likelihood to bring our King to their Bow of whom the Parliament had already entertained some Jealousies and who would not fail to be enraged when they came to understand he had entred into an Alliance with a King who gave way to the Oppression of his Protestant Subjects but this specious pretence of the French Indulgence might serve him very well to amuse his Parliament and at the same time to deceive himself and the Protestant Nations in general without might very well believe the French proceedings herein and especially that part of it which related to the Reformed's future Tranquillity were real when they themselves in France were fully perswaded of it and imagined that the Days of Henry IVth were returned upon them again It 's certain there had been considerable Efforts made since our King 's entring into the aforementioned Tripple Alliance to have it further strengthned by the Accession of other Protestant Confederates into it and that there was a certain Person whose Name was Marcilli a Rocheller Born and a Professor of the Reformed Religion that took indefatigable pains in it the true Story of this Man is very odd and falling pat with the Design of this Letter I shall give as concise an Account of it as I can not doubting of your Lordship's kind Acceptance this Person I say taking the Advantage of the Conjuncture of the League between England and Holland and very much doubting of the sincerity of the Declaration made in Favour of the Reformed in France thereupon made his Application to several Protestant Princes about entring into the said Alliance and was no small Instrument to induce the King of Swedeland to come into it which gave occasion of its being called the Tripple League He had been also at our Court and opened the King's Eyes in relation to many things that had been misrepresented to him and wherein he had been imposed upon either by the French Agents or the falsity of his own Ministers of State but these Addresses of Marcilli were not long concealed from the French Court wherefore they took Council and dispatcht away the Mar-Marquess De Ruvigniâ— into England with Instructions to take off those Umbrages our King had taken upon the Conduct of the French Council towards him the Marquess his Religion being a Protestant as well as his Capacity recommended him as the fittest Person to assure the King of the sincerity of the French proceedings and that the Reformed should have all the Justice in the World done them in short the Marquess did his Business so effectually at our Court that tho' he were the Reformed's Deputy-General he had almost Bankrupt his Credit with all the Churches who did not a little resent his Complaisance upon that Head Marcilli having done as he thought his Business in England was gone upon the same Negotiation to the Swiss Cantons not without Directions as 't was believed in France tho' dissembled for a time from our King to induce the Swiss to come into the Alliance whereof when Ruvigni had advertized the French Court the King gave Mareschal Turenne who yet made Profession of the Protestant Religion Orders to Seize him if possible and Kidnap him back into France the Mareschal to disguise the Matter as much as might be and to give as little umbrage of any such Design as was possible pitcht upon Three Officers making Profession of the same Religion with himself to go into Switzerland to Seize him the sameness of Religion between Marcilli and them gave them easie familiarity with him so that at last having got him into a place where he could not be rescued they hurried him into France where he was Tryed forthwith and Condemned the Man during his Imprisonment shewed all the Constancy both of a Brave and Innocent Mind and all the Application of the Judges and Rigour of the Questions put unto him could never make him change his Language but he maintained his Innocence to the last and the Secrets he had been entrusted with by a great Prince whom I have heard some of his very Enemies blame for not interposing in his behalf or afterward resenting of it at all when there were some things put to him in relation to that Princes Person that little suited with his Honour even upon the publick place of Execution just as the poor Man was broken upon the Wheel and now my Lord they had Murdered his Body they went about also to Murder his Fame by giving out that they were forced to expedite his Execution because that having found a piece of Glass in the Prison he cut off his Privy Parts therewith as thinking he might quickly bleed to Death and so be his own Executioner which notwithstanding being soon observed by the Goaler he gave the Officers notice thereof who put him to Death Two Hours after And that France might seem to be sincere at all Points in respect to the Liberty of her Reformed Subjects out came another Declaration in August 1669 inviting all of them that Sojourned abroad or were in the Service of Forreigners back into their Native Country and particularly out of the United Provinces where there were of them great numbers as Officers Soldiers Merchants Seamen c. but tho' they were thus liberal in their Promises to the Reformed and made all the semblance of Sincerity in the World hereupon yet they never ceased underhand to tempt the most Considerable Persons amongst them by large Donatives and Hopes of Preferment to come over to the Church of Rome and what Success they had therein will be the subject of another Letter and so I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 23. 1676. N. St. LETTER XI Of the Pervertion of the Prince of Tarent Mareschal Turenne c. to the Romish Religion about the Year 1669. My Lord FRance as I have informed your Lordship in my last having invited her Subjects of the Reformed Religion home out of all quarters the Prince of Tarent who had been settled several Years in the United Provinces and possest of great Employments quitted their Service thereupon and returned to his Native Country where he had not been long arrived but he was Charmed into the Popish Religion and
all his Children saving one Daughter afterward Married to the Prince of Oldenburg following his Example This they looked upon as a good step but what gave them a mighty accession of strength as much as it was a diminution of the Power of the Reformed was their gaining of Mareschal Turenne to their Church who because so considerable a Person and so famed for a great Captain I shall recount unto your Lordship all that ever I could learn in relation to him upon this account It 's true the Mareschal never did appear to be a Person very Zealous for his Religion but as he had from time to time given some Proofs of his Constancy it was attributed to the Coldness of his Temper which made him Calm enough in all things but that Constancy that appear'd in him for a time was attributed afterwards to other Causes and primarily to the ascendency his Wife and Sisters had over him his Lady being Daughter to the Duke De la Force and a Person of Exemplary Piety keeping of him steady in his Profession whilst she lived and his Eldest Sister the Marchioness De Duras always encouraging of him to be constant and so Zealous she was that she began to breed up one of her younger Sons with a Design to make him a Minister but that Design not succeeding that Person going over very Young into Engl. has been since as your Lordship well knows advanced to Honour in the Kingdom The youngest Sister the Dutchess of Trimonill never failed also of her Duty towards the Mareschal in that kind That the Marshal had been often tempted to change his Religion is manifest Cardinal Mazarine who had a great Opinion of him made him many suggred Promises if he would come over when the Dauphine was Born he had Intimations given him that he might one day be made his Governour but that did not move him neither the last Effort that was made upon him was by the King himself at the beginning of the Campaign in Flanders in the Year 1667. when he promised him a share in all his Secrets and higher degrees of Command if so be he would Embrace the Communion of the Church of Rome but this had the same success upon him with the rest and the Mareschal acted his part with so much sted fastness and in so Noble a manner that the King took no Displeasure thereat and for this the Church at Charenton returned Publick Thanks to God who had inspired him with such laudable Constancy but without naming of him but some time after that Peace was concluded when there was no more talk of him upon that Score he entred into the Roman Communion and it was given out he did it voluntarily and of his own accord and I could ne'er learn by whose Instigation it was done or what were the true Reasons that brought him to it but however it was this Change of his was attended with important Consequence which did appear in due time and this is all I could remark or learn concerning this Illustrious Person only that he Abjured his Heresie as they call it in Notre-Dame in presence of the Archbishop of Paris and so concludes My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris May 31. 1676. N. St. LETTER XII Of a Book Published in France proposing Methods for to Ruin the Reformed which had like to have spoiled the Court-Politicks in pretending Favour unto them at that time My Lord I Have in a former Letter shewed your Lordship the great Care the French Court took to have it believed both at Home and Abroad that their Declaration in Favour of the Reformed was real and like to be permanent and what Politick Ends they had therein but a Book Entituled the Policy of France came out not long after to wit in the Year 1669 that had like to have spoiled all the fine Web they had spun It was supposed to be written by the Marquess De Chatelett a Gentleman of Bretaign and contained one entire Chapter of Methods to Ruin the Reformed and he was so Adventurous as to Dedicate it to the King himself and made him a Present of one of them but his Zeal was but coarsly Rewarded for he was sent to the Bastile for his Pains and the Book supprest but because the Methods he proposed therein were such as were very odd and may be put in Execution in time and that I cannot send your Lordship one of the Books I have taken out the Heads and are as followeth he proposed the Total Destruction of them as a necessary Work and reserved it for the present King and whether he did really know or was ignorant of the Court Designs he did certainly I believe fit his Politicks to the Intentions of the Court He represented them full of Resentment for the loss of their Places of Security and of being always animated with Minds to Revolting Confusion and Anarchy and constantly ready to make use of any Opportunity to Re-establish themselves He made them to be Enemies to the King's Prosperity perpetual Obstacles to his Designs and always to be feared because of their Animosity and of the number of good Soldiers over which they could make Chiefs by giving them Authority to Command them He took upon him to shew that the Protestants of Germany suffered themselves to be ruined without any Opposition and that they had too much need of the King's Protection to Embroil themselves with him He said the same thing of England Swedeland Denmark the United Provinces and of all the Protestants whom he imagined to have been so linked to the King by strong Chains of Interest that they would not concern themselves to hinder his Exterminating of the Reformed Religion in his own Kingdom He put a Malicious Interpretation upon the Reformed's taking up Arms in the last Civil Wars and he pretended to Divine that had it not been that the War had been so soon happily terminated they would have formed Grand Designs made High Demands and endeavoured to set up their Party again He said the Edict of Nants was revocable as having been a thing extorted from the then King and admitting it might have been formerly granted for the Benefit of the State yet it might now be revoked for the very same reason He was far from being of their Opinion who thought that the Reformed were useful to the Church of Rome her self because they obliged the Ecclesiasticks to Study and lead Regular Lives he said that was a Trifling Argument and concluded that the King had sufficient Grounds to seek out ways to put them out of Condition to Hurt or do any injury to his State Having promised this he was not of the Judgment to be rid of them by way of Banishment as the Moors had been driven out of Spain he looked upon that way of Treatment Inhumane and withal prejudicial to the State but he proposed Fifteen Expedients to be rid of them by little and little The first of which was
to be Charmed and ever since favoured the French Interest either with or against his Prince as Occasion or Policy directed In fine he was told that the French King indeed tho' he had great Temptations from Opportunity and Interest to Attack England yet such was his Respect and Inclination for our King that he was more disposed to imploy his Forces against Holland And that he might with the surer Success undertake such an Expedition his Majesty earnestly prest the Duke to do his utmost to Influence his Master to join his Naval Forces with him in that War by which means he might Revenge the Disgraces received in the last especially that of Chatham as likewise the fresher Insolencies of that Saucy Republick whose Vicinity and Power was so much the more dangerous to the Brittish Monarchs than to any other Crowned Heads as the Subjects of these Nations were more prone to hanker after the Liberty Enjoy'd by the Hollanders and to imitate their Successful Example That by so doing his Excellency would do his own Prince very great Service and have the Honour of Obliging a great Monarch who was as Generous in his Resentments as Formidable in Power c. The Duke returned Home well satisfied and brought a pleasing Answer to our King and plyed him warmly with the Proposition aforesaid tho' at first he was not much harkned too but how when and by whose means their Designs were afterward Accomplished your Lordship may expect to hear when Conveniency serves from My Lord Your very Humble Servant Paris Nov. 30. 1676. N. St. LETTER XVII Of the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans's being sent Anno 1670. from the French Court to dispose the King to a second War with the Dutch in Conjunction with the French My Lord THe French Court having as I told your Lordship in my Last gain'd the Duke of Buckingham entirely to their Interests they began now to conceive some hopes to bring our King to joyn with them against the States at least wise with his Naval Power of which they had most need and therefore to strike while the Iron was hot they deliberated of sending over an Embassador of their own into England to negotiate the Matter but to colour the Intrigue as if they had no Design of their own thereby and to give no Matter of Jealousie to their Neighbours especially the United Provinces It was agreed it should be a Female Embassadress the Kings fair Sister Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans and so give out at the same time she went over purely on a visit to her Royal Brothers and that it was with some seeming Reluctancy the French King upon her earnest Application to him to that Purpose gave his Consent But she was furnished with such Proposals which they knew well that sent her none could with equal safety and privacy Advance nor none with equal Power and Influence recommend and to secure the whole Transaction from the very Suspitions as well as the Penetration of any not of their Cabal and to make it appear as a pure visit and the effect of natural Affection and void of all Intreague her return was limited to so short a Time and in so peremptory and notorious a Manner that it might induce the World to believe them too Suspitious of the natural Inclinations that Princes might still retain for her Royal Brothers and for the Weal of her and their Native Country so incompatible with the exorbitant grandeur of France to entrust her with any of the mysterious Arcana's of their Politicks and so might prevent all Jealousie in England at that critical Juncture of that interview by shewing so great an Apprehension of it themselves She was charged with the same Message partly and with some of the same Arguments which they had endeavoured to insinuate by the Duke of Buckingham but having an incomparable Advantage above him or any other Embassador to back whatsoever she advanced with all the Charms that a most accomplished and lovely Princes and an only and most beloved Sister could be armed with she who had Wit and Dexterity enough to manage those Priviledges to the utmost Advantage not only prest the said Matter and more home and with infinitely more Freedom and Efficacy but adventured to propose yet higher things and of a much more extended Consequence For addressing her Speech to the King though not without intermixing some Expressions equally affecting also to her Brother the Duke of York she told his Majesty that as she hoped neither of her Royal Brothers had any Reason to call in Question her natural Affection to their Persons and inseparable Inclination for whatsoever did or should at any Time appear to her to be conducing to their true Interest so she believed they had as little cause to doubt but she could see as far as another into the French Monarchs Heart who loved her and admired her to that Degree though innocently as gave no small Umbrage to Monsieur his Brother and her Husband And that she did sincerely represent both as his most Christian Majesty's Sence and her own that the only way to secure to his Majesty and the present Royal Family of England a stability in the Throne they were lately Restored to afâ—er so dismal an overthrow of the Monarchy in the Reign and Person of their unhappy Father and to reinstate the Majesty of the Brittish Kings in its former Splendor and Security enjoyed so long and gloriously in Catholick Times was by all Wise and Politick Mâ—ans to labour to introduce into these Kingdoms the Catholick Religion and to re-assume by Degrees absolute Power â—or that the Church of England by woful Experience had been found too weak alone to defend the Crown and that the Dissenters were so stifly Principled for a Common-Wealth that they would never leave till they had once more overturned the Monarchy unless his Majesty would timely provide for his Security by Methods â—o be proposâ—d to him by her and the most Christian King who she knew had the atmost tenâ—erness for his Interest as was clear enoâ—â—h by all Expressions of his real Inclinations â—â—nce they were emancipated from the â—estraints laid upon them under the Tutelagâ— oâ— a Cardinal who was a Master in pure Politicks and altogether unacquainted with those nobler and more heroick Sentiments of Honour and Generosity which are no less natural and unextinguishable in a born Prince then common Reason is in the â—est of Mankind The chief of which expedients were flattering of the Church of England and first persecuting by Act of Parliament the Protestant Dissenters and wheedling with them again by a Prerogative Lenitive and so by the not to be Questioned acceptance of the Suffering Protestants on the one hand and the no less assured Non-opposition of those of the established Church on the other as by an irresistible Charm to lay asleep that watchful Dragon that had so long kept the golden Apples of Contention between the King and People
from the Ravishment of the most enterprizing Monarch and break that mischievous Devil that had of late been so busie in asserting pretended Liberties and advancing the Soveraignty of old hateful Laws above the more Sacred Majesty of the Princes the only rightful Legislators whilst the Crown as securely as unregardedly might seize and seizing â—or all Perpetuity appropriate as to it sell the important Jewel of Dispensing Power which would fix and fasten the whole Chappelet of unbounded Soveraignty by making usâ— of that Popular Relaxation to indulge the Faction esteemed the most dangerous to the Monarchy and to decoy them into a favouring of those Encroachments upon the Laws and upon the Peoples Fundamental Right and therein the Legislation who seemed of all Men the most deeply principled against them And so in effect to make those very Persons the tools for the Erection of Absolute and Despotick Sway who otherwise could hardly be reconciled to the most Just most Legal and most Moderate Royalty So far were the measures to be observed at home and those which she and their Brother of France advised to be used abroad were 1. To endeavour by all possible means the Subversion of the Republick of Holland the perpetual Source of Rebellion in England 2. In order with so much the more Expedition certainty and Safety to effect the Reduction both of his own People and of that â—ntâ—ward Neighbouring Nest and receptacle of Plotters and Rebels To resolve upon a firm and inviolable adherence to the Interest of the most Christian King who in that Case would no way desert him but vigorously and powerfully aid him and carry him through all Difficulties But in Case added she his Majesty could not satisfie his Conscience weâ—l enough to attempt any such Change in Religion as she just now had mentioned or notwithstanding all remonstrances to the contrary should continue over-perswaded of the two great Difficulty or impracticableness of such an enterprize that however as a Protestant of the Church of England which was firm to Monarchy if he desired to put himself into a Condition to Protect and that Reciprocally to Defend him and his Successors in time to come It would be absolutely necessary for him at least to concurr with his most Christian Majesty in Subduing the Republick of Holland That besides the Advantage of such a Repartition of the Conquered Country as he could reasonably expect he should find upon the reduction of it that the Commonwealth Faction in England and her Two other Sister Kingdoms would dwindle away of it self and so the King would not only become Absolute Master of his People but as his Christian Majesty would concert the Sharing of those Provinces with his Brother of England the Naval Power and Trade of Great Brittain would receive an incredible augmentation by the Destruction of a State that was her only Competitor at Sea and for Commerce and Riches promoted thereby For that not only their Shipping and Seamen together with their Chief Sea-ports and beâ—t Sea provinces all entire would be his Majesty's but also that all the most Wealthy and Substantial Merchants and Industrious and Ingenious Tradesmen and Artificers even of the Provinces and Parts that should fall to the Share of the most Christian King would in all appearance transplant themselves either into England or Ireland as lying more convenient for Trade than their own Country or at least into those Parts of the Netherlands which should be reduced under the Power of the King of Great Brittain To whose Domination as approaching nearest the Sweetness and Freedom of that they now were under they would certainly more willingly submit their Persons and Fortunes than to that of the more Absolute one of the French Monarch for which they had entertained a Thousand Prejudices In fine she most earnestly and affectionately besought him to take those Matters into his most serious Consideration and to return a speedy and if it might any ways be a favourable Answer that she might have the Happiness to return back the Messenger of good News and such News as might prove a Foundation of a lasting Felicity to both the Illustrious Families from which both his Majesty and her self were descended The King after a little silence told her by way of Reply to the things she had represented to him That it was impossible for him to doubt of the ardency and reality of the Affection of a Sister so Amiable and who had always exprest so much Tenderness for his Interest That he as little questioned but that she had penetrated as far into the Interiors of his Brother of France as it was possible any one could into the Heart of a King and therefore upon her Representation of him chiefly which he assured her would induce him to give the more Credit to the Favourable Conjectures he had made of his Temper during the little time he had the Honour to Converse with him whilst in Exile and to the general Character he had since his Personal Administration of Publick Affairs obtained in the World of being a Prince of great-Honour and Generosity and thereupon passing by some former unhandsom and unkind Treatments in his Court as pure Effects and Influences of the over-ruling Ascendant of the then Regnant Mazarine and not of that Prince's own Inclination he should put much Confidence in the sincerity of the most Christian King and accordingly desired her to return his said Majesty his Royal and most Hearty Thanks for those obliging Expressions of Amity and Affection he had signified to him by her and to assure him in his Name he should ever have his Friendship in high Esteem and would go as great lengths as in Prudence and Interest he could to serve him and to comply with his Desires But that the Matters proposed being of the highest Consequence he must beg his Excuse if he required more time to give him a positive and satisfactory Answer thereto than the short space limitted for her stay in England would permit however that he would with all convenient Expedition give him a better Account In the mean while he should Request his most Christian Brother by her to do him the Justice to believe he was as sincerely affectioned to his Person as he could be to his and should ever persist to be as far as a King of Engl. could his constant and most Obsequious Friend The like Complement as far as it was agreeable to his Circumstances was returned by the Duke After which the Princess renewing the Charge in the Business of Religion the King freely told her That as to that Point tho' he had entertained very kind and favourable Thoughts of the Roman Religion and its Professors for several Reasons he instanced and did believe that if it were Re-established in his Dominions the Monarchy would be safer and easier than it could be under the present state of Protestancy yet he was not so fully satisfied in it as to make it his own Religion and
Game another way and employ'd their Emissaries in Holland to stir up those People to provoke the King's Resentments by all the ways that Artful Malice could devise they caused him to be represented to them as a mean Spirited Prince drowned in Pleasures and by them Bankrupt and that would put up any Affronts rather than be weaned from them a Moment That slender courage he had being Cowed in the last War as likewise were the Spirits of the proudest Merchants and Seamen his Subjects under such an Unactive Prince adding moreover that to their certain knowledge the Duke of York was now a Papist tho' in hugger mugger and that the People had a strong suspition of it how clandestinely soever carried and had thereupon conceived such an implacable Jealousie against the Duke therefore and against the King himself on his account that they would never patiently brook the Command of the one nor heartily assist or fight for the other in a War against a Protestant State but break into Factions and rather abet them then support so Unwarlike so Unfortunate and what was worst of all so Popishly affected a Prince that therefore now was the time to give that finishing stroak to that so Great so Glorious and so Advantageous a Work to their most Puissant and Renowned Republick which they had more than half done in the last War under the favour of the most Powerful Assistance of their great Master Viz. to obtain for ever the dominion of the Seas so highly contended for by the English and ingross the whole Trade of both the Hemispheares to themselves And that in so Glorious an Undertaking As the Great Monarch of France had when in extremity most opportunely and successfully assisted them in the preceding War So he was determined to do in this not with a few Auxilliary Troops and Ships as before But with his whole Force being resolv'd of nothing less than to concur with their High and Mightinesses for the Absolute Conquest of that Queen of Islands that had so long domineered over the Sea and pretended to give Laws upon that Element which God and Nature had left as free as the Air it self And that their High and Mightinesses might enter into no Umbrage of his designing any Greatness to himself that might be prejudicial to them by such a Conquest he was content to share it with them and that so Partially in their Favour that he would satisfie himself with the two Poorer Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland the former for the sake of its Ancient Alliances with his Kingdom and the latter because of the Conformity of the Religion of its native Inhabitants with that of his own Subjects leaving to them the Principal which was England where all the Chief Trade Riches and Power both by Sea and Land of the Brittish Empire was concentred together with all its goodly dependances both in the East and West Indies with which he could not pretend to meddle the success of which Proposals I design shall be the subject of another Letter with the first opportunity From My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1677. N. S. LETTER XX. The Dutch upon the foresaid Remonstrances made to them by the French King being induced to enter into a Treaty with him were wheedled by the French Embassador to sign their part of it and to send it to the French King for him to sign it but he pretending specious delays sends it to the King of England using it for an Argument for his compliance with the Proposals he made to him of entring into a War in Conjunction with him against the States But ordering his Embassador withal to acquaint him that in case of his Refusal he must be obliged to turn the Sham-League with the Dutch into a real one My Lord THE Specious Remonstrances and moâ—e Inviting Proposals made on the French King's part to the Dutch as mentioned in my last to your Lordship so tickled the Hogens that they suffered themselves to be deluded into a close Treaty with the French Court for that great Expedition not at all thinking what Ruine was designed themselves and Division of their own Territories between the French and English was then Modelling among the Monsieurs as a further tentative to induce our King to arm with France against Holland and that the very League the French pretended to be making with them was but the master Stratagem to procure that other Allyance that without the unexpected and timely interposition of Divine Providence had proved the Mene-Tekel of their Flowrishing State and turned that great Magazine of the Trade and Riches of the Universe into a sorry bank of Lillies accordingly they began first to insult our King in his Person by multitudes of most scandalous and insupportable Pasquirades and Pictures which the French Agents endeavouring to make him resent as they deserved and finding still that he declined to comply with their desires alledging again for Answer the ill success of the last War caused chiefly by them the averseness of his People to another War c. And farther his unwillingness only for Injuries that personally concerned himself alone to engage those Nations again in so bloody and destructive a War as after all could be of no very considerable advantage to either side be the event what it would They proceeded then to tempt him further by offering a larger proportion of those Provinces when Conquered and besides such an assistance in Money as should enable him to go through with the War tho' his Parliament should deny their Concurrence with him therein and to make their perswasions the more effectuall they did again warmly ply the Duke of York attacking of him on the blind side Viz. his Religion and telling him that tho' he were privately a Catholick yet the People began to have a strong suspition of it and would at long run come to know it and would not fail then to make such strong brigues against him as that they would certainly put him by the Succession unless before such a Discovery were perfectly made he could induce his Brother to joyn his Arms with those of his Most Christian Majesties for the Conquest of Holland where were the Vitals that Administred Life and Spirits to all those Factions he had to fear and which after the Conquest of that United many-headed Hydra would soon be supprest â—ut could be by no other way and that then the introduction of the Roman Religion into these Kingdoms whenever he should succeed to them would be easie else impossible that his Most Christian Majesty was then provided with such formidable Forces and had laid the Empire into such a Sleep of Security and so amused the other Neighbour Princes with such doubtful and contrary appearances that before they could awake and rub off the dust they had thrown in their Eyes they might have done their work on the Hollanders who least of all the rest expected an Attack and were therefore
Alliance in that disadvantagious Posture of the British Affairs and rather inclined to joyn with his Majesty against those sawcy Republicans and sworn Enemies to all Crowned Heads Ordering him withall to tell him that the Obstinacy he perceived in his Majesty in refusing to vindicate his own his Families and his Kingdom 's Honour and Interest against them had prevailed with him to push on a Treaty with them so far as to get it by Address Signed by them afore-hand that he might have wherewithal to give his Majesty an undeniable Proof both of their malicious and dangerous Intentions and of his own sincere Inclination to his Majesty and delude them into a security that might hinder them from providing for any Defence by Land against the Forces he had ready to pour in upon them in case his Majesty would please while it was yet time to joyn with him And further to add that for his part he had not Sign'd it yet but was ready to Sign one much rather with his Majesty and would on that condition so protract the time with delatory Answers and Excuses that their present Naval Preparations should be eluded and they attacked when they least expected and when his Majesty might have time enough to make sufficient Provision to second him therein by Sea to both their certain and glorious Advantage And lastly ordering the said Ambassador in the close to tell his Majesty roundly that tho' indeed he had carried on that sham League for the Reasons afore-said viz. For the Interest of his Brittish Majesty as well as his own for the better conviction of him of the Necessity as well as Convenience of joyning with him and lulling the Enemy into that security that was necessary to the Success of the Arms of both Crowns yet if after all these steps his Majesty would still persist to be deaf to his own Interest so visibly and plainly made out to him that truly his Master then would be forced to decline those of his Majesty take new Measures consonant to his own and in a word turn the sham Alliance into a true one by immediately Signing and Counterchanging it and at the same instant joyning with those Enemies against him without giving him time to make any tolerable Preparation that might enable him to weather their first Attempts for that it was his Masters undoubted Interest to keep great Forces on foot and not to keep them idle And that therefore if the King of England would not joyn with him to employ them where he had most Inclination and much Interest too to employ them he would be forced by Interest against his Inclination to employ them against him being resolved to employ them some where and so the Ambassador concluded his Harangue as I shall conclude this Letter having been tedious I am afraid to your Lordship and so remain My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris March 19. 1677. N. S. LETTER XIX King Charles II. being at length brought over to a Compliance with the French Intreagues and to make War upon the Dutch the French Council make all the Alliances they can among the German Princes c. and where they could not prevail use their Endeavours to perswade to a Neutrality My Lord HAving in my last to your Lordship set forth the successive Intrigues of France to bring our King into their Interest and to come to a Rupture with the Dutch States their Artifices especially the last as how could it choose unless he had been indeed the Log he has been resembled to wrought so effectually with him that he then without Reluctancy consented to the French King's Overtures and an Alliance was tho' very privately concluded on wherein were inserted Articles for a projected sharing of the States Dominions already Conquered by our Army as we had been before by theirs and now both Courts concert Measures to continue the Amusement of the Enemy and to gain some other Neighbours into a Concurrence or Neutrality The French King after some Demur to gain time and to finish his Intrigue in England had no sooner concluded it but after his usual way of Dissimulation sent back the Instrument of the Treaty with Holland to the States but with such Additions and Amendments as he knew would take up time to debate tho' couched in most suggred Words and backed with large Promises of continuing and augmenting Friendship And having in the mean time gained the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster and some others on the Rhine partly by Money and partly by deceitful Pretences to joyn with them They had also the vanity to attempt tho' the very Thoughts of such an Overture were charged with insuperable Difficulties to delude the very Spaniard if not into a Compliance yet into a Neutrality with them while their Forces should be acting such Tragedies as were intended in their view and not without passing through their Country they having such Creatures and Factions in Spain as they much confided in but after all their Wheedles and Intrigues there they found such strong Opposition made by the Queen-Mother who was a great Enemy to France as gave them little grounds to hope for any great Success in that Negotiation so that they began to content themselves with what they thought they were sure of viz. By gaining of so much time in keeping of Matters in suspence both in the Spanish and Imperial Councils who were naturally slow enough in their Deliberations as might suffice them to accomplish their design upon Holland before they could be in a readiness to hinder the finishing Stroke If so be they should declare for the States against them as was to be suspected they would after which secure of Success they concluded they should be in a condition to attack rather then to expect the whole Austrian Force tho' fortified with the Succours of all the rest of Christendom My Lord I am not at present furnished with the Topicks they went upon to bring the Spaniards to a Compliance in this Matter but I hope I shall be able to give your Lordship a good account of them in my next which shall be with the next conveniency but in the mean time I am My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 15. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXII Coleman being engaged in the French Interests here follows the Topicks he went upon to induce the Spaniards to a Neutrality in the War in 1672. My Lord THat the French Ministers are Gens audax omnia perpeti is very manifest by what I have written to your Lordship before but to be so adventurous as to form Topicks for the engaging those in the Spanish Interest to favour their Designs by deluding that Nation to a Neutrality seems to be a Master piece of their Policy as well as Audacity Having therefore gained Mr. Coleman whom they judged of any other the most proper Instrument to carry on such a Design they formed the following Topicks for him the better to
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
their Compliance that there was no occasion to scruple it since they knew well enough that our Government was but a qualified Monarchy wherein the Subject owed rather more Allegiance to their Country than they did to their Prince And that since their King went about to deal so unfairly and injuriously with their Country as to enter into Leagues and Treaties and that underhand with a Foreign Prince contrary to their true Interest and deceived his Embassadors by transacting things different from and opposite to what they had received in their Instructions and trusted not his own Ministers but only Forreigners with his main Secrets of State it could not be thought any great infidelity in them to deceive such a Prince and to enter into private Intreagues against such Designs as were pernicious and destructive to their Country and would be so to the Prince himself if not prevented in time with a great deal more matter still more invidious than that to the same purpose Such Methods as these My Lord I find in the minutes of the Instructions prescribed from time to time to those who are imploy'd to converse with our English Embassadors or Envoys and after-notes do also remark they had success enough with some of them whom your Lordship may so well guess at that I need not name them However this opinion they entertained of most of the English whom they gained into Intrigue except it were the Duke of Buckingham and one or two more that they served them with the same mind with which they imploy'd them for this was and is still an usual saying with them We imploy'd them not for any love we have had to them or any good we intended them but only for the Interest and Advantage of our own King and the Dishonour and Disadvantage of theirs So they as we believe and have by experience found by most served us not for any love to our Interest but to our Money and with intent to make what we intended for the disservice of their Country turn in the end for the good and benefit of it or at least to the Factions and Perswasions they themselves were off I could inlarge much more upon this Head but I have been already tedious and therefore I must conclude and remain My Lord Your Lordships most Devoted and Humble Servant Paris March 19. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXVIII Of the French Resolutions to elude any Advantage the English might receive by the War My Lord HAving already given your Lordship an account how our King was brought into the Alliance with France and to engage in a second Dutch War I shall now proceed to set forth the insincerity of the French Friendship and how little Benefit our King was to reap thereby in case of Success and the Methods they had to elude him Tho' their chief Design was to destroy Holland yet they intended England should reap no Benefit thereby but rather decrease and truckle under them for that they meant nothing less then the real Performance to our King of his Share in the projected Division of the Enemies Countrey as if it had been their Motto Pereat Hollandus nec non subsidat Anglus And therefore they so resolved to carry things on by Sea as that they seemed to be rather unconcerned Spectators then Actors for us in any of the Engagements tho' your Lordship well knows that afterward when they were left alone with the War they could Fight well enough to Defeat the Dutch and Spanish Fleets in the Mediterranean and bereave that State of their famous Admiral de Ruyter which was more then ever we in all our Combats with him could effect For as if the French Dealing had been a Graft of old Punick Faith they treated us more like perfidious Africans then generous Romans giving not only private Orders to the Commanders of their Naval Forces which they should send us at Sea to avoid as much as was possible any effectual Fighting for us but only to observe and learn what Improvements they could from us both as to our manner of Fighting and the Situation of our Harbours and in the main to approve themselves not only as Cyphers but as broken Reeds to us who were in expectation of great things from them and this evidently appear'd afterward by their Conduct towards Captain Martel who for falling in bravely with us against the Dutch was first soundly checked and then disgracefully cashir'd for his Honesty and Bravery and as their Instructions by Sea to their Officers was to play the Legerdemain with us in this manner they gave the like Instructions to their Land Commanders on the Holland side and particularly tho' it had been concerted between both Courts that whilst we should attack Zealand which was the Province alotted to our share their General in the Low Countreys should divert all Relief from it by a great and sudden Irruption into their other Provinces which in the Consternation they then must needs be put to he might most effectually do yet not only their Minutes but the Event clearly shewed it was the least of their Thoughts we should have a foot of Ground for our share on that side for you may very well remember that when our Army was afterward actually Embarqu'd for that Enterprize in which in all probability had he done his part they had succeeded yet in that critical Moment wherein he should have acted according to the Lesson given him he did upon some frivolous Pretences neglect the same and so frustrated that Expedition which obliged our Forces with no small Confusion to return back and Land without attempting any thing It 's most certain My Lord and by their Minutes it doth appear that they had concerted before hand that in case they met with any powerful Resistance by Land that then their Auxiliary Squadron at Sea should act in earnest with us and vigorously second us in humbling the Enemy but if they made any considerable Conquest in the Dutch Territories which according as they had laid their Measures they supposed they could not fail of then they were to observe the Cautions since practised by them for that their Interest required no further then that we should with as much Damage to our selves as might be without Advantage to the Hollanders divert and debilitate their Force but to suffer us to be absolute Masters of the Seas or of but one Maritine place on the Belgick Shoar was too great an Error in Pollicy for them to commit but in case there were an appearance that our Fleet notwithstanding their base Prevarications should master that of the Dutch and that at the same time their Armies by Land made progress in the Conquest they thought themselves sure of that then they should by their Emissaries both in our Court and Countrey sow Jealousies but more especially to propagate a strong Suspition of the Duke's having embraced the Roman Religion which they were sure would work the same if not a greater Effect
then the publick certain Knowledge of it could do for it would cause such Factions and Divisions therein and such an Aversion to that Prince that he should be forced to yield up his Command into other hands and to alienate them from the Quarrel that it would most effectually hinder the English Success from passing the Bounds they intended them and hence would arise such a Disreputation to the King and such a Dissatisfaction in the People in general as should conjure up such devilish Factions as with all the Art he had he should never be able to lay quiet enough to leave him at liberty to act any thing considerable against the French Interest in case he should attempt that way to regain his Subjects Confidence and Esteem and consequently would deter him from the very Thoughts of disobliging such a Friend and quitting such Alliance of so near so present and of so potent a Protector as the French King had made himself pass with our deluded Prince against the so much dreaded Practices of the Republicans which those Emissaries still took care tho' covertly to represent in the frightfulest Colours their most Romantick Inventions could supply them and so with my humblest Respects to your Lordship Concludes My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris March 31. 1678. LETTER XXVIII Of the Success of the French Arms against the United Provinces in the Year 1672. Their further Resolves to Elude us and their Wheedles to induce the Amsterdamers to yield My Lord THE States being at length roused up out of their sleepy Security and beginning to dread that notwithstanding all the French Wheedles and Delusions those vast Preparations by Land and the lasie Movements of their Armies boded no good to them did by their Embassador at Paris who was a Son of Hugo Grotius offer the French King all the Satisfaction imaginable But that haughty Monarch had concerted his Measures so well and thought himself now so sure of his Game that all their Offers were laughed at Your Lordship knows well enough what a bustle was made in England by Summoning of the East India Company to give an account of the Insults of the Dutch upon their Factories since the Peace at Breda who answered and gave it under their Hands that they knew of none and such other stuff as that was yet the French King did not think fit to trouble his Brains with any such Pretensions but his chief Motive to undertake this War was that that State did eclipse his Glory and must be humbled c. And accordingly gave his Armies Orders to enter the Dutch Territories I need not recite to your Lordship the Success he met with in his Enterprize and how like a Torrent he carried all before him how Rhinburg Dossery Deudekâ—m Rees Wesel Emerick Doesburg Turesume Nimeguen Swoll Daventer Grave Arnheim Skinenschon Creveceer fell quickly into his hands and Coventer to the Bishop of Munster his Confederate and the greedy Monsieur now began with an amorous Eye to look upon Amsterdam which he did not question but to be speedily Master of and it was the least of his Intension to allow our King any Share or Part of the Repartition before concerted on between them And tho' it were privately suggested unto him by a grave Minister that attended him that if he proceeded any further he doubted his Conduct would be contrary to his Interest as tending how much soever he doted on their friendship to alienate the King of England's Affections from them by degrees and convert the Confidence he had in their Sincerity into utmost Detestation especially the main Charms being by the Death of his principal Charmeress his late lovely and beloved Sister in a manner dissolved and tho' he should be over-awed by other Considerations as to smother his Resentments yet it would so loudly awaken the Old Aversion of our Nation against them that far from being able to continue much longer in League with them it would be impossible for him during such a Juncture and under such Provocations to contain his irritated Subjects within the Bounds of a stupid Neutrality or restrain their Fury from recoiling upon himself and the Royal Family any other way then by letting of them loose upon the French and suffering of them to wreak their Revenge and long curbed Inclination in an open and vigorous War on their old Adversaries to oblige them to regorge those delicate Morsels of which they had so perfidiously and unfairly defrauded them of their stipulated Share whilst their Allies and Confederates Yet My Lord Excess of Prosperity had so blinded the French King that like the Emperour Charles V. of Austria when he had taken Francis the first then King of France Prisoner at the Battle of Pavia he fancied they had all the World now in a String and had partly already provided and partly concerted such excellent Salves against all Inconveniencies of that kind that as secure against all Contingencies or the jadish Tricks of Fortune whom they imagined to be now fastned with too strong and well-contrived-harness to their triumphant Chariot to kick against her Drivers much less break her Rains they thought they might incontrouledly play what Tricks they would with the English tho' to flatter us with the hopes of our Repartition would be necessary yet for a time as it would be easie after the Reduction of Amsterdam and the entire Conquest of those Countreys both by specious Arguments to justifie against our precarious Plea their intended retention of the whole to themselves and to back their Usurpations by force when once in Possession As did the Lion in the Fable to the Beasts who on the plausible Condition of being allowed an equitable Share had entred into a Confederacy of hunting with his Brutish Majesty but he when all was done making himself to be Judge and Sharer had upon Alamode Pretences the Brutish Conscience to take and by force to keep all from them And accordingly the French when they found that on their side Victory advanced not on Tortoise Claws but Eagles Wings and saw themselves before either Neighbours or Allies were aware Masters of the best part of the Territories of that distressed State and with their Swords in their Hands point almost to the Vitals of it As they were most surprisingly active in taking all they could for themselves most liberal in allotting our Auxiliaries in their Armies their full share in the Fatigues of the War most false to the Faith of our mutual League by declining in their turn to second those Advances we were ready to make towards the like Success and in fine most perfidiously busie in casting Rubs in our way as I have before hinted to your Lordship to balk and in planting those Lights to misguide and shipwrack our Designs So by their Conduct as well as Minutes it did appear that they intended not to stop there but that after those stupendious Progresses that favoured their Beginnings It was resolved by them
of them according to the Letter of the Treaty and your own repeated promises for which pretended expences persued they still your Majesty may instruct your Ministers to demand such excessive Sums as you know they neither can nor will disburse And as for their asserting their claim by a War after your seizing of Amsterdam that great Magazine of the dead riches of Europe and both Indies and of Warlike Provisions both by Sea and Land and the total reduction not only of that Potent Republick of which it was the Head but likewise of the living sources of Treasure both in the East and West by making their great Fleet Merchants Colonies and Commerce all your own which cannot but clear your way to Guinea and Peru What stomack said they can the English after this have by taking of their Out-works the Low-Countries debarr'd from all assistance from Italy Spain and Germany if in their right senses to have recourse to Arms. Alas what power to attempt any thing but what will move your pitty more then your indignation nay rather what greater Ambition will be left them than to Court your Majesty by an easie and voluntary submission to receive them as Honourable Tributaries thereby to retain a shadow of their Ancient Government and Liberty without incurring the certain destiny by an impotent and fruitless resistance of being forcibly reduced into a Province of your growing Empire to which the Roman Eagle it self abandoning the defenceless Towers of Austria shatterred both by Eastern and Western Hurricanes for the better preserving and re-establishing its Ancient State and Majesty will then be glad to retire This may be your Majesties method continued they to preserve Peace a while with England or stave off at least the War till your present grand design be accomplished and these your Measures how to deal with them afterward in case they suffer you quietly to atchieve this important Conquest But should we be able by no Art to buoy up the King of Englands Spirits against the head-strong opposition of the popular party about him nor so much as to delay a Rupture nor to hinder that violent People from immediately declaring against us yet all considerations on all sides duly weighed and perpended it will be much greater and more certain advantage to your Majesty and of much less dangerous consequence to your Affairs in general to venture a War with them now about a Town which with all they can do they cannot assist time enough to rescue from you and by whose acquisition against their wills you will not only be quit of all their Pretentions but gain power to crush them too at pleasure than after you have for fear of them quitted so great a Conquest to have a War in a little time after both with them and all the rest of Europe not only without those advantages but with the greatest disadvantage imaginable as without setting on work an hundred expensive and troublesome Intriegues you now will have no need off your Majesty will certainly have then notwithstanding all pour complyance to them if you quit your present Design For said they suppose upon your proceeding to the Expedition in question the English declaring a sudden War against you should cause the Amsterdamers to assume courage enough to repulse your Arms how easie were it for your Majesty upon advantageous Terms to clap up a sudden peace with those distressed People and by returning out of their Country to pacifie all those powers now preparing against you and then with your whole Force to fall upon the English with which perhaps too the Hollanders would easily be perswaded to joyn theirs as glad to see themselves delivered so unexpectedly their old Enemies drawn so genteely into the Snare and so fair an occasion put into their hands to revenge themselves on that Rival Nation for joyning with us against them with which it will not be amiss however by your Envoy to threaten the English King Nay and how probable it is that the popular party in England would on that occasion favour the Hollanders to keep down Absolute Power and to preserve their Religion against the aspiring Duke and Popery all which they strongly feared would have come in at once upon them after the ruine of that Protestant State At least said they how effectual may it be to let you Majesties Envoy add that threatning amongst the rest to the King of England But Alas continued they it is but a matter of meer Speculation never likely to come to pass that any thing the English can do at present should as the posture of their Affairs are now in hinder your Majesties taking that City whose Richest and Eminentest Citizens being already gained to your Party the very terror of your Majesties Navy and the appearance of your Forces will quickly open it unto you notwithstanding the weak opposition of a Party formed in a tumultary way among a Mobile by a few particular biggoted Citizens who at the noise of your Cannon would immediately turn to the other extream and cry out as loudly for a surrender And as for the English said they our Emissaries have been so busie and so successful at Amsterdam that it can never be thought what ever good Opinion they may have of the People of England that they can be induced to confide so much in their King whom they have so personally and so grosly affronted in all that can be sensible to a Prince and whom they know so much Frenchified as to think he can heartily intend them any good or that they can expect any milder terms of subjection under him either in respect of Religion or Property then under your Majesty Since they are daily and by very good tokens assured that he is privately advanced already towards Rome as far as the other and waits only the subvertion of their Republick to assume every whit as Despotical and Tyrannical a Dominion over his Subjects in both respects as the French Monarch had over his or in fine that they had so great an opinion of his Power in that Posture of Affairs as to think him able to rescue them time enough or remove the French from them if he went really about it And consequently that in the great Consternation they then were in and the little hopes they had of the slow Forces of Germany and the distrust they lay under both of their own strength and of the Faith and Power of the English together with the Apprehension they were possest with of losing the great Riches they had there by an obstinate resistance which they might secure by a timely composition they would undoubtedly submit upon the first Summons of his Majesty or any famed General of his at the head of a considerable Body of Men especially when his Majesty should offer them such advantageous Conditions as they advised him to do the more effectually to avert them from all thoughts or temptations to close with England and to propose
they failed to stem the Tide that broke in as a consequent upon that Vote of the Commons Octob. 31. 1673. That considering the Condition the Nation was then in they would not take into further consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear the obstinacy of the Dutch should render it necessary c. For the French Emissaries had taught the King and his Juncto their Lesson to wit to give out that the Dutch were full of Sullenness and Obstinacy and would come to no honourable Terms and therefore there was a necessity of further humbling of them but now the Court of England were as hasty to make up the Peace with Holland as e're they were to declare War against them which was concluded by the 9th of February 1673 4 but though the Dutch came hereby to enjoy Peace with us at Sea yet they found the pernicious Effects of the Valour of the English Troops which continued in the French Armies and gained them several Victories after that Peace till upon the earnest and repeated Instances both of the Foreign Powers concerned and of our own Parliament some redress was given to that Grievance but never a total one a Proclamation being obtained for recalling our Forces from the French Service which yet was construed not to extend to the Irish Nation who after that by that foul connivence of our King not only continued there in Bodies as formerly but drew over Recruits from time to time and were most highly cherished and caressed as indeed were the Irish Nation all along with a sensible difference above the English and Scotch especially when a War was expected with us they having a secret design upon that Kingdom by one Method or other ever since their first drawing our King into League with them which they did not obscurely intimate when by way of encouragement they would now and then say to the Irish Roman Officers among them as likewise to other qualified Gentlemen Travellers of that same Nation That the King their Master had an esteem of them above all other Nations for their Antâ—quity Generosity and Invincible Conâ—â—â—ncy to their old Religion for above a Century of Years after their Masters the English had abâ—ndoned it and that the Scots and the Wâ—eish Britains by the contagion of their Example with sufficient Derogation from their former unviolated Claims to Antiquity and unconquered Liberty had done the like and would assure them from him That the time would come when he would shew them marks of his Esteem by conferring the Hereditary Guard of his own and his Successor's Persons on their Nation instead of the Scots who were now departed from their Interests and that as a Catholick Prince and the Guarantee of their Treaty with King Charles when in Banishment for restoring to them their Estates whenever he should be restored he would see them righted and would one day free them from the Tyranny of the English Nation But notwithstanding all underhand Compliance of our Court with that of France as our Peace with Holland had already displeased them This recalling of our Troops as partially executed as it was quite put them out of humour so that though they durst not shew their Resentments too far for fear of increasing the Evil they fretted at yet they did what they could by allurements to debauch and by hard Usage and all imaginable Discouragements both to deter as many as they could of our Soldiers from paying Obedience to the said Proclamation and to disable those who were fixedly bent to return from being serviceable to their King and Country Among the rest mighty Advantages were offered to my Lord Dowglas afterwards Earl of Dunbarton to intice him to stay and some time after he was gone upon hearing he had no Preferment under his own King by reason of the severity of our Laws against Men of his Perswasion there were very great Rewards proposed to those they thought had any influence over him to perswade him to return and particularly to my self in case I could find any who could so far prevail over him but all in vain yet most of the Irish remained to the last and were very serviceable at the brisk Action of Gyrone and on some other Occasions and after the fear of the War with us was blown over by the Tempest raised among our selves whilst we blinded our Parliament and People by seeming to observe exactly the Articles of Neutrality agreed upon between our King and them they for a long time and even till now have refused to receive any English and Scotch Officers and Soldiers to their Service tho' contrary to their Allegiance to their King and Country several of them and some of them Romans of tried Affection proffered themselves yet still as many Irish as presented themselves were readily entertained And thus My Lord Tho' these subtile Politicians missed of their first point in hindring our Peace with Holland they succeeded but too well in the second through our Court's weakness and base Prevarication which was eluding it by corrupting our Neutrality with such a partiality on their side that it was an Honey-Comb to them whilst it was but a Spunge of Gall and Vinegar to the Confederates but foreseeing that in time this jugling conduct of our King would make all Europe murmur and render his Friendship or Mediation suspicious every where That it would make him odious to his People and blow into a Flame those old jealousies that already began to rekindle and afford ample matter for the Emissaries of the Confederates to work upon in our Nations and consequently to actuate our People so violently to a League with the said Allies against them that it would be impossible for the King with Safety to resist them for of his good Will to them by this time they were pretty confident they therefore were careful to make a timely Provision against an inconvenience so much dreaded by them and to endeavour to make use of those very Jealousies Fears and Animosities whose Effects they apprehended against their Adversaries by dexterously catching them up like Fireworks before they brake and returning them back upon our selves and this difficult sort of Game they managed by several Stratagems of which I have neither room nor opportunity to advertise your Lordship at present but must defer it to a proper season and remain as I truly am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris July 12. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXXV Of the Marquess de Ruvigni a French Protestant his being sent Embassador into England and what the Politicks of France were therein My Lord I Do not question but your Lordship does remember the first time of the Marquess de Ruvigny's being sent Envoy from this Court into England which was in the Year 1669. and which I think I have in one of my Letters hinted already That he was a Person very capable for such an Imployment none can doubt that knew him but that ever he was
at that time as well as his own and that if he would effectually espouse that Affai◠he might reckon upon what he pleas'd himself from the Generosity of the King their Master whose constant Character it was never to let the least Merit go unrewarded But if it should so fall out that Sir William proved stiff in the matter as it seems he did by the sequel they were to turh the same Batteries upon Pensioner Fagel with a variation of Phrase and Complement agreeable to the Person and Circumstances and more especially to try what the force of the French Pistols might effect that way And if so be matters were carried so far as that the Prince was found to give any ear to it then he was to be rounded briskly what mighty things the French King would do for him in relation to his future Greatness both in England and Holland That for his Principality of Orange he should have it restored to him again or such a compensation nigher Home as he would reckon on himself as also for his Lands in Burgundy and any other Losses Damages c. Nay they were ordered to offer him a very large annual Pension if he would have complied But half these things were never actually Proposed because the said two Ministers and the Prince himself more than any were as so many 〈…〉 for they would not so much 〈◊〉 hearken to the Voice of those dangerous Charmers A rare Instance My Lord to withstand such great Temptations and not to be parallell'd perhaps in any other young Prince of our Age as it was indeed also in the two Ministers many of which England at this time is not over-fruitful of I wish it were our Affairs would have been in a better posture than I hear they are and I dread much worse to come I pray God avert it and preserve your Lordship from all Dangers which shall ever be upon the Heart of My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant Paris Octob. 19. 1678. LETTER XXXVIII A Summary of the French Methods to get the Dauphin made King of the Romans My Lord PErhaps since all the noise of the Western World at this time is the Affairs of Hungary between the Turks and Imperialists the particulars whereof I need not trouble your Lordship with it will not be amiss to look a little back and remark what influence this Court has had upon this War and what Designs they have long since hatched under the Covert not only of this but all the other Broils they have engaged Germany in I find by Patin's Letters so far back as 1671. that it was a matter then not questioned but that there had been Designs concerted to have the Dauphin created King of the Romans which made me endeavour after a more particular information in that Intriegue which at last I have found to be inserted in this manner according to the distinct Heads that follow I. All the Designs which they had concerted in the Wars between England and Holland for the weakning and destroying them if possible as I have already given your Lordship a particular Account of first terminated in that ultimate end Of advancing the Dauphin as before-mentioned II. The former Wars against the Confederates was attempted for the same Ends in a great measure all their Designs against the Spanish Monarchy having a tendency that way III. Their unspeakable Pretensions in the Palatinate on the behalf of Madam the present Dutchess of Orleans IV. All their open and secret Practices in Hungary from Arch-Duke Joseph's being made King there and by making Overtures to another King underhand John Sobieski by name to oppose the Emperor therein promising their utmost Interest to get that Crown and Country conferred on him and his Posterity rightly judging that if the Arch-Duke were balked in Hungary it was not likely he should prevail in Germany 5. They have now for the same end their Emissaries in Turkey being partly Jews and partly Jesuits who incited the Turks to begin the War and to push it on even to the Capital of the Empire and did at the same time by other Agents both in Poland and at Venice all they could that they might hinder those Countries to come into the Confederacy against them as thinking themselves Cock-sure that if Vienna had once been taken the German Princes would have been in such a Consternation that as the only remedy they would have called in the French Power to oppose against such a dreadful inundation of Infidels as would thence have followed and for which they could have done no less than to have declared the Dauphin King of the Romans and have made the French King Guardian and Protector in the interim of the Emperor and Empire especially having the Electors of Cologne Mentz and Triers either inclined for or over-awed by them and it being easy in that juncture to have forced the rest This my Lord is the substance of what I have found they have projected upon this Subject from time to time as the circumstances of Affairs gave way and occasion and nothing more certain than that they have had it all along in their view to advance the Dauphin to that Dignity which they have hitherto failed in and I hope ever shall I did not think to have entred upon this subject which is also somewhat remote from the Affairs of our own Country but that the sight of the forementioned Author excited my curiosity and the fondness of the discovery made me also fond to communicate the same to your Lordship tho' perhaps no very grateful part which yet I trust your goodness will pardon in him who is My Lord Your very humble and obedient Servant Paris Jan. 14. 1684. N. S. LETTER XXXIX Of Don John of Austria's being hindred to take upon him the Administration of the Spanish Affairs in the year 1676. My Lord IT 's not long since I have given your Lordship an account of the advances made by this Court towards a Peace but you know since that the War went on with various successes and perhaps your Lordship has heard of the Business of Don John in Spain How he was prevented from having the Administration of the Affairs of that Country by a Letter under the King of Spain's Hand when he was just going to embark for the relief of Messina there was at that time an expectation in the Confederates of mighty things to be perform'd by him to their advantage and the preventing him from a share in the Government was esteemed generally to be a French Trick and so it was but I believe the Confederates were guilty of a grand mistake in their expectation of him for the French Memoirs say Don John was perfectly their Creature and that it was the violent hatred of the Queen Mother of Spain as well as a jealousie to have her own Power invaded that put him beside the Administration That it was through his means the Matching of the King
of any thing that looked black or villanous or seemed too directly to aim at the detriment or destruction of their Country or Religion till such time as they had a long trial of their Tempers and found them fit for such Attempts or that they had got them first into such a Correspondence which tho' in the ultimate intention was not malicious but only an effect of zeal to their several Parties yet would if discovered be construed reasonable and so keep them under an hank to them and then they were to put them on such Barbarities and Villanies as they thought necessary for their purpose which if they then refused their Business was to abandon them and to imploy such Instruments as were as Bankrupt of Religion and Conscience as of Fortune and would be desperately determined to venture at any thing for Money and by these they were to be pretended to be detected as Traytors and prosecuted as guilty of the Designs which they have been only tempted to and so were to serve all People whom they once got within their Toil as occasions and their Interests did require But I see I have already past over the just bounds of a Letter and shall therefore only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordship 's most devoted Servant Paris May 5. 1681. N. S. LETTER XLI Containing the Practices of the French Agents for the amusement of Foreign Catholicks while they carry'd on their Designs against England My Lord IT would be very strange to think that the Ministers of this Court who have had a hand almost in every thing relating to our Nation should not be concerned in the affair of the Popish Plot but it is so far otherwise that they have been the chief managers and starters of many things which have since come to light Nay I am bold to say That the very actions and intentions of almost all the Instruments of the English Nation and even of some of the French themselves were very wide tho' villanous enough from those of the Machiavillian Off-spring which set them on work My Lord you have heard of Father St. Germain and perhaps of Father Columbiere too who succeeded him in England these were the Persons who together with their other assisting Emissaries disposed of Things and Parties in our Nation to favour their Designs in reference to the said Conspiracy and whose Instructions from Father La Chaise were to take upon them to inform and press upon the Creatures of the Pope and Ministers and Creatures of other Princes of the Roman Communion but of a different Interest from their Master 's the French King That for their parts they were only actuated by a Zeal for the propagation of the Catholick Religion and the re-union in time of so famous a Monarchy to the Church by gentle and peaceable ways and means and chiefly for the Conversion of our two Princes so nearly Related to their King in Blood and for whom he had so much Esteem and Affection and that their Master being their nearest Neighbour and seated most conveniently to assist them on occasion would with his Purse promote all he could the quiet Conversion of all sorts of People that could be drawn in by the Godly Eloquence of their Missionaries or by the more powerful language of Pensions with some and was heartily willing to supply our Princes with what was needful or might be so to maintain themselves against any Attempts that might be made against them upon the jealousie or discovery of any such design and succour them by a sufficient Military Force too in case they were likely to be reduced to Extremity by an open Rebellion of their stubborn and discontented Subjects on that account without once pretending to so idle and impracticable a design as some of them whom they spoke to were tutored to call it as by that means to go about to make the Crown of England seudatory to that of France or to strengthen himself with the additional power of England with intent to encroach afterwards upon the Rites and Prerogatives of the Holy See or give Umbrage to other Temporal Enemies of that Communion or to draw any other advantage to the French from the Alliance of the English Princes than to be able in the quality of Most Christian King and first Son of the Church to promote the growth of the Holy Catholick Religion in their Realms and Dominions and make use of their Mediation and Friendship to ballance in some measure the present force of so formidable a Confederacy as was lately formed against him That it was a thing ridiculous to think or once as much as imagin that whilst he was in actual War with so many considerable Powers at that time he could be so simple as to attempt England by force or if he were out of War with them that he could as much as offer at so considerable an Enterprize upon any pretence whatsoever without allarming them or expecting to be opposed Vigorously by them as well as by the other Protestent Powers of Europe or that he could be thought to be so rash as to venture on such a difficult Expedition whilst he foresaw so powerful an Opposition But that indeed upon the happy conclusion of a general and lasting Peace among the Catholick Princes he would most willingly and readily join and concur in any holy League with them and contribute his full proportion of Forces with theirs to so glorious and laudable a Work as would be the restoration of the Kings of England to their pristine Power and Majesty and the Holy See to its former just Authority and Jurisdiction in these famous Islands which for so many former Ages had made so considerable and profitable a Province of the Roman Church and therefore they were to desire and press them not to let any particular Interests which they had against their Master in worldly and secular Concerns prevail with them to go about to mis-interpret or any ways obstruct their Conversion of Souls which could be of no manner of prejudice to them in those other respects but rather readily to concur with their Endeavours in so pious and charitable a Work wherein they ought wholly to lay aside all distinction of Nations or Interests and Cooperate as Members of one Body and Subjects of one universal Prince Christ Jesus and his Vice-gerent-General the Pope With which Arguments and sly Suggestions they were to wheedle all Foreigners to at least a careless security and unconcernedness about the Affairs of England whilst they play'd their pranks to destroy both our Religion and Government and make us an Appennage of the Gallican Church and Crown which I pray God I may never live to see nor my Country feel and shall ever do so whilst I am as I am resolved always to be My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Devoted Servant Paris Mar. 11. 1682. LETTER XLII The Arguments of the French Emisaries for the Amusement of some of the
Native Papists of England c. That their designs in regard to the Popish Plot might not be prevented My Lord HOw far the Subject-matter of my last to your Lordship hath relished your Palate I am altogether ignorant but adventuring for once to presume its having proved grateful I have in this as it were subjoyned those Instructions the French Agents have received for the amusement of the Native Papists of England in order to the carrying on of their Designs under the covert of the Popish Plot against our Native Country To them therefore they were to use in substance the same pretences as to the other but with some further additions as That the King and the Duke of York were both certainly gained over to the Church of Rome That the most Leading-Men of the Kingdom and the Men of most Power and Interest both among the Clergy and Gentry of the Church of England were Popishly inclined and would without all doubt come galloping over tantivy to the Church of Rome when it should be a proper time for the King to declare himself upon that Head as being well convinced that Monarchy and Prelacy had no other way to defend themselves against the restless and violent practices and efforts of the Sectaries and Republicans and others their Adherents in the Kingdom but by seasonably re-uniting with the Roman Catholick Party from their unjustifiable Separation and Schism from whence innumerable incurable and endless Divisions Distractions and Factions had proceeded That for their comfort and support it was now much otherwise than in the late Civil Wars against King Charles I. That the present King of France being in a condition to give their now Sovereign King Charles the Second a most powerful and numerons Assistance and being a most Generous Prince and withal most cordially and well-affected to their King as well as to their Cause there was no manner of question to be made but he would effectually do it without any by-ends of his own as soon as a general Peace should give leave by which time things would be ripe in the Kingdom to favour his good Intentions to go on with the Conversion of our Nations yea and would take care to provide a sufficient Body of Troops for the abetting of so hopeful a Work in case there should be any such need of Force but that it was reasonably to be supposed there would need none For that by the help of safer Methods and of Mony which that great and zealous Prince would not let them want for so good a Work the number of the Roman Catholicks must needs be so mightily encreased in a few Years that the King might venture to declare himself in their favour and then by the voluntary return of the Church of England to Rome their Mother Church and by the very dread of the formidable Power of Lewis the Great who was known to be a sure and fast Friend to our two Royal Brothers the other dissenting Factions would be so over-powered with the number of their Opponents and so terrified at their Strength that if it had not the good effect to work them up into a complyance it would at least into such a tameness that they would neither be able to hinder nor have the rashness to oppose what Changes and Innovations the King should afterwards have a mind to make in Church or State and make them Triumphant in England And thus they were to lead them on till they had noosed them fast in a Correspondence with them but not a word was to be told them till they had first sounded them whether they were fit to hear it of any design they had to subject England or enslave the rest of Europe to French Tyranny or of the Murder of King or Duke or both in case they found them not pliable enough to their Instigations or that their abominable Ends could be compassed no other ways to which if they would not be compliant they were then by those Tools to have some of their Correspondence with them discovered and have them accused as if they had been really guilty of what they were only tempted to And so by this means all the considerable Men of them besides some Rascals to make Tools of were to be drawn into a close Correspondence with France and beaten quite off from any application to Rome or correspondence with the House of Austria sliely insinuating that France was the only Power in Christendom that could preserve or support them But the full design they had upon the Nation as before hinted was a Secret imparted but to a very few nay it was not as much as communicated to the Jesuits of the two British Nations but kept almost to the last as an Arcanum among such of them as were Native French except only two or three Irish Fathers and some very few more of that same Nation whom they thought averse enough to the English Name and Nation to be heartily true and constant to any Foreign Interest and Power capable to support and effectually to back them in the bloodiest and blackest Contrivances against their detested Conquerors for rather than fail to such horrid Tragedies they were determined by some means or other to proceed if they could no otherwise effect their wicked Purposes and could have found a way to fix the Crime as they had projected on some other Party and Nation My Lord I have been tedious but could not avoid it I design without a Countermand to transmit to Your Lordship in my next the applications made to rhe Protestant Party upon the same Head and in the mean time remain My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Mar. 17. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLIII Of the French Artifices to amuse the Protestants of the Church of England while they carried on their Designs My Lord PUrsuant to my Resolutions in the close of my last Letter without I received a Countermand from your Lordship which I have not I am to acquaint you what this Court 's Maxims were and what Methods they went upon either to make the Protestants of the Church of England helpful to their Designs or at least to do them no disservice and be no obstruction to them therein To the Clergy therefore and Gentry of the forementioned Church whom they imagined there was any likelyhood to pervert they were to alledge most of the same things as before as Arguments to perswade and induce them to return to the Bosom of their Church and would argue much from the agreement in many things of both Religons and were Instructed sometimes not only first to insinuate and then affirm the King was actually Perverted but were moreover impudently to assert That such and such Bishops such and such Eminent Doctors such and such Peers of the Realm and such and such remarkable Gentlemen for Interests Estates and exquisice Parts c. were to their knowledge certainly and infallibly so too tho' at present but covertly and That a greater part of
fiercely against King Lewis if they would but once consider the great Liberty and Priviledges which their Protestant Brethren enjoy'd in the French Dominions their former assisting the oppressed Protestant Dutch and other Protestant States against the Bloody Inquisitors and Unchristian Inquisition the severe Persecutions of the House of Austria the frequent differences of France with the Court of Rome and the little power the Pope was allowed in the Gallican Church no more than what was Titular and that if these things were but duly weighed it might be more than presumed the present French King would little concern himself or any way intermeddle with Religious Contests in England But that whatever opinion they might have of that Neighbouring King to his disadvantage which yet did but little affect or concern him they had on the contrary much occasion to look about them at home and to that end these Emissaries were to promote tooth and nail the belief of the King and Duke's being both Papists but particularly to affirm that the Duke was most certainly of that Religion and at the same time to discover assured Evidences of it as also of the Measures concerted to bring in both Popery and Arbitrary Power and really to detect some Measures which themselves had as yet but only projected or at least but proposed and that too but to the Duke only as if they had been fully consented to and begun underhand to be put in practice And having once well imprest this they were to exaggerate the greatness and eminency of the danger the more to alarm them and slily to insinuate that an Accommodation was Transacting between the two Churches of Rome and England and a thousand other Artifices they us'd besides to animate each Party against the other too tedious for your Lordship to read or me to relate neither need I tell you how they traversed one another's designs only I must Note Sir Roger L'Estrange and almost all the Writers for that side under a pretence of serving the Church of England and the Monarchy and some also of the other Party though unknown to themselves were and are still but the unhappy Tools and Instruments of French Jesuits and Machiavillian Emissaries who were the main Conjurers that by undiscovered Spells have raised up those Devils of Discord that under the Names of Whigs Tories and Trimmers have so much disturbed our Native Country and the LORD knoweth where it will terminate I am glad to hear your Lordship hath so well exerted the Caution and Prudence inherent in your Family in these times of difficulty and may it be so still which is the hearty desire of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris April 8. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Duke of York's being drawn into a close Correspondence with the French Court with an Account of his Pension from thence My Lord I Cannot think your Lordship will so much admire that the Duke should suffer himself to engage into a close Correspondence with the French Court yea and to enter into a separate Treaty with them when other things more unlikely have been made evident enough so as not to be contradicted I cannot tell at present whether there be any other particulars of this same Treaty than what has come within my Cognizance but so much as has as I hope it will be acceptable I as freely communicate and was in substance as followeth First The Duke was engaged to stick close to his Alliance with France declining all Treaties with those of the House of Austria and even with the Pope himself without the French King's Privity and Approbation Secondly To oppose to the utmost of his Power the King his Brother from engaging in any War for the Confederates Thirdly To joyn with him the French King in making a strong Effort to draw in if possible the Prince of Orange to embrace a separate Interest from that of the States of Holland and if not to come over to the Roman Religion at least to enter into a separate Treaty with the Kingdoms of France and England under a pretence of laying a sure foundation for his own future Greatness and establish it on both sides the Sea by the suppression of all Factions which now disturbed his Uncle and might afterward disturb him and in case he proved still obstinate to second him in all Methods that might be used to hinder his Succession to the Crown of England by hindring any Match that might be proposed between the Prince and the Princess Mary and that he should for that purpose keep off Matching either of his Two Daughters upon several pretences to gain time till a fit juncture might come when Matches might be accomplished for them both with French Princes or some other Princes in that Interest viz. the eldest to the Dauphin and the younger to the Duke of Savoy or a Prince of the Houses of Conde or Conti or to the Duke of Modena Fourthly That the Duke should do his utmost to have the Government of his Children himself and to have them Tuâ—ored if possible in his own Religion and if they were obstinate in case he should sail of other Issue then they would have had him to exclude them and Adopt the Duke of Chartres for his Heir but this was only proposed and Intail the Crown thence forward to Heirs Male only and to have the Salique Law Established in England as well as in France but and if he should not be powerful enough to hinder a Match with the Prince of Orange or some other Protestant Prince but of the former they were most jealous then to concur with them to cut him off but this point would not be formally assented to neither But all Points proposed were on his part easily assented to As doing his utmost for the propagation of the Catholick Religion pursuing Measures concerted for dividing of Protestants undermining of Parliaments and putting forward Arbitrary Counsels without reserve and particularly to raise Arms in Scotland and Ireland and call in French Forces in case the King should at any time by any Motives whatsoever be influenced to act to the French King's prejudice Lastly The Duke was to take care That no Popish Clergy or Layety should be imploy'd by him but such as were in the French Interests and trust his main Secrets with none but such as were French-born Jesuits on which Conditions he was to have a considerable Annuity of Six hundred thousand Crowns and extraordinary Sums when necessary and the circumstances of things did require to carry on any of the forementioned Points even to what he pleased himself to demand So all things being thus concluded he received in hand Three hundred thousand Crowns of his Annuity and Six hundred thousand Crowns extraordinary and Jewish Bankers were accordingly imployed to transmit the Money to him from time to time Besides all which the French King's Confessor promised him a private Contribution from the Clergy
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
abroad should fall to so abject a State as to become a French Pensioner which without the addition of any other Crime is more than enough eternally to blast the Memory of an English Monarch but I know this Subject can be ungrateful to no one alive more than to your Lordship and therefore I shall forbear further insisting upon it and remain My Lord Your Honour 's to Serve and Obey Paris Jan. 27. 1680. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of King Charles II's Politick's upon his Entring into the fore-mentioned private League with France as represented by the French Court. My LORD IN my last your Lordship had the substance of the Private League entred into by our King and this Court it may not be now unworthy your curiosity to know the Censure they have past upon him in relation to that head they have said they understood well enough that what ever their Design might be in obtaining such a point that the King and his Brother 's too upon them was to draw as much Money out of them as they possibly could thereby and yet not to venture too far on any of those important and ticklish Points proposed without very large Summs to secure every Step made forward and that by advance too for that they both concluded that the best and only way to make the French stick close to them was to be always considerably before-hand with them not without reason as they imagined fearing that if they were not still before-hand when they had engaged them in Difficulties and saw them fast they would leave them in the lurch As for the King tho' they knew him to be no more a Papist than he was a Politician yet he was of the Opinion if the Popish Religion could be handsomly made predominant it might suit better with the Monarchy yet having no Children to succeed him that he was but careless in that point and his Brother only being concerned in that matter he moved only as he was spurred on by his importunity the Temptation of Money the Diffidence he had of his People and among others the Fears he had either of having his days shortned or his Crown very much endangered by the Intrigues of his Brother or the French King should he not keep fair and humour them both in some tollerable measure since he found himself so far intangled in their snares For as for his Nephew the Prince of Orange that he had no aversion for him but rather an inclination through Nature and Policy and therefore was of himself willing enough the Match should go on yet that he would have been glad if the Prince could have been drawn over to the French Interest for that then he thought he would have compassed many desirable Ends in one business and made a very great advance to have satisfied all parties in the greatest part of their several Pretensions because that then he supposed he could have satisfied the French King in bringing over a Prince to his Interest so very capable to serve him in that juncture of time that he would have satisfied also those of his own Subjects who were well affected to the English Monarchy as he would have likewise our Trading Companies by marrying our Princess to a Prince of the Protestant Religion whom he by separating from the Interests of the States of Holland and drawing into a League with two great Kings should have put into a condition to depress that Republick which was so ill a Neighbour to the Monarchy so much our rival in Trade and so great a fomenter of the Schisms and Factions in England that thereby he should have laid grounds to hope that if ever he succeeded to those Crowns he might be able to subject the Belgick to the British Lions and transfer the magazine of the Riches of the World from the Netherlands into England and that fie thought to have satisfied the Duke his Brother in a great measure by so satisfying his friend the French King and likewise by depressing a Republick so well scituated and inclined to abet his deadly Enemies that in all appearance would way-lay his Succession to the Throne and thereby cutting off all occasion from that Male-content party that continually sought occasion to stir up against him the old Devils of Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Power And that he thought to oblige the Prince too by putting him into a method to become a Sovereign in time And lastly that he was perswaded if the Prince complied with those Methods the Match could disoblige no body but the States of Holland and the sympathizing Factions of the Sectaries in England and the Republicans whom he thought inconsiderable but that how desirous soever he was of such a Compliance with France as they desired yet it was not in his inclination to break the Match for that he having in reality a much greater mind to the Alliance with the Prince of Orange than to that with the Dauphine in which he did imagine he foresaw unfurmountable Difficulties and such as might endanger if not over-turn his Throne ruine his Brother and the whole Royal Family and at last make Great Britain but a French Province however that knowing the Temper of the Duke his Brother and the vindicative humour of the French King he was willing to seem almost all complaisant and temporize for a while whereby he might appease them and at the same time get what Money could be drawn from France both for his own security and pleasure and when he had done that that he knew wheeling about and concluding the Match when they least thought of it or expected it would please his people again tho' never so unsatisfied by the delay These my Lord are the Sentiments of this Court concerning him which if true in all points I conceive they are more beholding to him than many persons in England are willing to believe of him but I shall leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to revolve upon the particulars and remain My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 1. 1680. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Duke of York's Politicks upon his entring into a close Correspondence with France as the French Politicians represent them My LORD AS I have transmitted to your Lordship the exactest Particulars I could learn concerning the King's entring into a private Treaty with France and in my last the Censure of this Court thereupon I have also to the best of my remembrance given you likewise an Account of the Duke's being drawn into a close Correspondence with them some time before but whether it were that the Ministers on this side conceived such a Judgment of the King as I have already related and such of the Duke which I am just about to relate I cannot possitively determine but thus it is they censure him saying That though he was so much a Bigot in Religion that he was totally averse to the Aurangian Alliance unless it could be
reconciled to those ends which he proposed to himself thereby and especially about Replanting both the Popish Religion and Absolute Power in the three Kingdoms and incline rather to the Match suggested with the Dauphine with an intent the more friendly to oblige his Most Christian Majesty to assist him through all the difficulties he fore-saw he had to pass yet he was not a little affraid of the great Resistance he knew would necessarily be made against such an Alliance which many in England looked upon as the most pernicious that ever could befall their Nation being also of himself not a little jealous that if once such a Match between his Eldest Daughter and the Dauphine were concluded some sly practises might be carried on by the French Court against the Issue he should have by his now Dutchess in favour of that his Daughter might probably have by the Dauphine and therefore that he was much more willing and desirous if it might be compassed that a Match might in time convenient be concluded between his said Daughter rather and his Dutchesses Brother the Duke of Modena or some Italian Prince of no power enough to be apprehended to entertain any such Designs and that as much French as she was before his Dutchess was now of the same Sentiments too being married and in hopes of a numerous Issue by the Duke These are all the Particulars I have hitherto met with in relation to the Duke and his Dutchess's Sentiments and with which I conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 14. 1680. N. S. LETTER LI. Of Coleman's Intelligence and private Correspondence with France to the King and Duke's Disadvantage and his Motions and Pretences for Money My LORD WHen I acquainted your Lordship with the Censure past by this Court upon the King and Duke's Sentiments in reference to their League and Correspondencies with them and especially the business of the Match I could neither determine whether it were purely their own Suggestions collected from the Circumstances and natural Positions of things as they then stood which I was inclined to or to some secret Information from another hand but now I find the latter to be true for whatever the King Duke and Dutchesse's true Sentiments were so they were represented under-hand by Coleman to the Juncto here and by some other self-ended Confidents of theirs of whom but more particularly of Mr. Coleman I find it thus inserted in our Minutes That being entered into a close and separate Correspondence of his own with this Court besides that known to their Highnesses whose Agent he was he was therein to give them intelligence of all that was transacted at White-hall and St. James's that possibly he could but more especially of the Comportment of the King and the Duke as to the Points agreed on between France and them as also of the Disposition of all the Factions in England and of the foreign Ministers c. to obliege himself to make Parties to cross his Master the Duke or the King or both in case either or both of them should go about to deviate from the Measures prescribed them by the French Court. I find my Lord he was besides this a great Undertaker for Conversions and Proselyting Men to Rome or rather France and his Agreement with them was to have allowed him as an Annuity the Summe of Twenty Thousand Crowns punctually to be paid and for Extraordinaries as should be calculated according to the emergency of the Occasions His Pretenses for Conversions were manifold and extravagant enough in the relation of them and did slily at first insinuate and when he had once broken the Ice warmly urged that whereas the Duke had very large Remittances made him upon the account of Conversions wherein he was an Undertaker that it were more advisable for the future to entrust him with a moderate Summe for that purpose and thereby save themselves that deal which they must have sent to the Duke upon that Account if they should send any and so moved them entirely to wave that point with him for that he could do much more in that nature than the Duke could ever pretend to because more imperceptibly He promised them likewise for the gaining of Members of Parliament over to their Interest great and mighty things and then discreetly insinuated those things already spoken of about the Designs of the King and Duke towards them and thereupon advised them to transmit unto them both only but moderate Summes and let him have but moderate ones according to a private Man's fortune and he would take effectual care both to manage them and do their business in England more to purpose than they would do without him He also added That to give the King and Duke great Summes would be no other than to enable them to buy the Parliament's Votes for themselves and not for the Interest of France and to get such store of Money of them that they would afterward take such measures as they themselves pleased without any regard to France being sure to please the People at any time whenever they were minded to go contrary to them and much matter to the same purpose with which I shall no farther trouble your Lordship but subscribe my self as I unfeignedly am and ever shall be My LORD Your most Obedient and Most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 28. 1680. N. S. LETTER LII The Duke of York moves the French Court for Money according to the private Agreement My LORD YOu have heard what a Spoke Mr. Coleman was pleased to put in the King and even the Duke his dear Master's wheel which they poor Princes knowing nothing of moved hard for the Summes promised by France the Duke as supposing his Credit the better being the forwarder of the Two and whose Pretences were that he had been forced to lay out by advance the greatest part of the Money already pay'd to make Creatures for their mutual Interest and future advantage all such Enterprizes being much more chargable to begin then to carry on and perfect that when Correspondencies were begun they must be carried on and that still by advance if any thing of service were expected or hoped for That he had a most difficult and uneasy Task to deal with the King his Brother 's timerous and changeable Disposition and was and had been at a very great Expence to greaze Favourites of more Kinds then one that might influence and perswade him to and hinder others that might disswade him from what they in France did expect from him or urged him to as also to appease and quell Enemies on all sides which his late Match with their adopted Daughter and change in Religion had stirred up violently against him and that to keep the King his Brother steddy in a favourable Neutrality in regard to France and yet at the same time either break off the Match quite with the Prince of Orange defer it so long as
they desired or negotiate a private Treaty with that Prince in their favour and to their advantage with that power and good effect desirable required as they might well imagine more than ordinary Summes of Money and all ready and in Specie too But that if besides his ordinary Allowance according to the Agreement which he expected should be punctually pay'd him every six months he could but have a Summ of a Million of Crowns again seasonably advanced him for Extraordinaries before the time of the next prorogation of the Parliament were expired then he did believe he might bring matters so to bear by such a Reinforcement so as to be able to gain Votes enough even in the Parliament it self to carry it against all others both in respect to the Neutrality and to the gaining their Consent for deferring any Foreign Allyance by way of Marriage of either of his Daughters till a General Peace was concluded and work very much with the Prince of Orange too to comply with their desires when he should see the Parliament gave him no hopes otherwise of compassing his Aims or if not yet at least he should be able hereby to keep himself still strongest in the Privy Council and in the Court where nothing should be transacted to their disadvantage That both his own Friends and theirs had been so very successful and made such wonderful progresses in Conversions of all sorts and Ranks of People as that of such and such Peers of the Realm I will not say your Lordship was one named among the rest such and such Courtiers and Members of Parliament c. that such and such Bishops Eminent Doctors in Divinity and other dignified Clergy and such and such Gentlemen who were remarkable for Interest and Estates or Eminent for exquisite Parts though they have learnt here since there was nothing more false were either already converted and quite brought over or extraordinarily well inclined and that there was no doubt to be made of it but by an augmentation of about four or five hundred thousand Crowns more for the Cause and Interest of Religion they might be able so to dispose of the greater and more noted part of the Conforming Church of England which was the main of their Work as to bring them over to their Religion yea and even to declare for it publickly too as soon as they should be freed from the Fears of the English Mobile and of the Fanatical Sectaries and see a General Peace concluded and the King himself declare for it being back'd with so powerful a Prince as his Most Christian Majesty was that however many of them were already brought over to the French Interest against the Dutch and many more might be so if timely Liberality were offered with many other Allegations set off with Coleman's usual flourishes on the behalf of his Master though he had countermined all before as I have already hinted And lastly that he had once more attacked the King his Brother as to Religion and that with great hopes and that if he could have but Money enough to carry on the Point with the Church of England he questioned not but by that time a General Peace were negotiated his Majesty would be induced to declare too when besides his support abroad from the Most Christian King he should see himself backt by almost all his Royalists then numerous enough in the Nation and so great yea more than a probability of an Accommodation between the two Churches of Rome and England and his potent Brother of France then by the Peace at full Liberty to lend him all needful Help My Lord you see here what little Sincerity there was in all their mutual Proceedings May the Reward be suitable is my unfeigned Wish as it has been already to some But I am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Mar. 9. 1680. N. S. LETTER LIII Of King Charles II's urging the French Court for his Remittances according to the private League between them My LORD YOU have heard what pressing Instances His Highness has made for his Remittances according to Agreement and what mighty Encouragements he has given this Court of gaining their Ends both in Court and Parliament And now 't is fit the King should put in his Plea at last which he did in this manner as their Minutes represent it That for his part he had advanced rather more than less Money than he had already received from them for carrying on their Work and that not to enumerate many Particulars he would observe to them that when he saw there was no other Probability of obliging his dear Brother of France in preserving the Neutrality so much desired by him but by Proroguing of his Parliament which they knew well enough was a tender Point That yet not to be wanting to his Brother's Interests and his own Engagements he had adventured so far as even twice to Prorogue them and had withal expended most of his own Moneys in endeavouring if possible against the next Meeting or Session of Parliament to make a Party so as to be able in a Parliamentary Way to over-match his Adversaries and those of the Most Christian King his Brother and not only that but to be in a Condition to support himself during their Recess in the Figure he ought as King of England to make both at home and abroad for his own Advantage as well as that of the Most Christian King 's and so carry on the Work of Mediation between him and the Confederates as his Brother of France would have as likewise the desired Negotiations in Holland to induce the Prince of Orange to a Compliance c. That they could not but know he was much involved in Debts by the last War in Conjunction with them against Holland and other extraordinary Occasions by Troubles arising and fomented chiefly by his adhering to his Brother of France's Interest and that he having Prorogued his Parliament upon his Account and thereby put himself under an absolute Necessity of being deprived of the Legal Assistance of his People it was but very reasonable and just they should advance such a Sum as might enable him not only further to gratifie His Most Christian Majesty's Desires but also to satisfie in part his own extraordinary Necessities and recompence him for the Subsidies he miss'd of thereby again and again from his own Subjects And Lastly He demanded at least such a Re-inforcement as he had before received at the Conclusion of the Treaty with France and that by way of Extraordinary besides his Annuity punctually paid And of this he expected an exact Performance before the besides another Advance at the Beginning of that Session that so he might be able to make his Party good against all Opposers at their next Meeting or else Prorogue them without fear of wanting Money during their Recess And did further insist beside some other Proposals not worth mentioning upon his having Five
King would be involved in equal Trouble on that Account as on the other For that if she were given to the Prince of Orange without first engaging him in the Interests of France that thereby he would have a double Claim to the Crown that of Course the King his Brother must be drawn into a War with France and that by so doing both the Royal Brethren would lose for ever the French King's Friendship and Support in case of Extremity which they would infallibly be reduced to by such a War or by but making a Shew of it For if it went on whether there were Cause or no there would be Jealousies of the Duke 's Corresponding with France yea and of the King too And that after all such a Match would be interpreted but for a piece of Policy only to hide from the People their Correspondence with France and would never cure their Jealousies nor take off the Fears they had of a Popish Succession by his new Dutchess but add Strength and Courage to them to oppose Remedies against it That thereupon when they had the King once in a War they would not give him any Money to carry it on unless they saw the laying of it out and had in a manner the Administration of the War in their own Hands in which His Highness would be but a Cypher and would never be trusted That then not content with that it was not to be doubted but that the Exclusion of himself and of his Heirs by the Second Bed unless educated in the Protestant Religion would likewise be hotly urged in the next place in favour of a Protestant Prince so doubly Allied to the Crown of England a professed Enemy of France and a Native of Holland the Country next their own so much adored by them That such an Alliance would strengthen that Faction that was already but too strong That such an Exclusion being press'd the King must either grant it or deny it if he granted it as it was to be feared he might then was His Highness and the Heirs of his Religion lost without Recovery and then it would be out of the French King's Power as well as Inclination to assist him after having been so disobliged against the Power of England and Holland united neither could he propose that Advantage to himself be it as it will That if the King should resist the said Importunity about Exclusion that then he would expose himself to the Distractions of a Civil War which might end both in the Ruin of the Royal Family and the Monarchy it self for that the Republicans would not fail to lift up their Crests again in those Troubles And that besides the Interest of the Prince of Orange the Duke of Monmouth being already very popular might be tempted by so fair an Opportunity to put in for a Pretender to the Succession and that it was not impossible that the King if he saw him favoured by the People might be tempted too to prefer the Interest of a Son before that of a Brother and a Brother too for whom he must be necessitated to undergo so much Vexation and Trouble and run so great a Risque to defend That in the mean while England being in a War with France that King instead of helping him must be obliged in his own Defence to foment those Troubles and abet his Enemies That perhaps he might think some of these Fears but imaginary but that His Highness might assure himself they had better Intelligence than he in that Case and were very well satisfied that all the said Parties were ready disposed and had concerted all their Designs against him and that they were abetted by Men of the greatest power and Interest in the three Kingdoms and then of what Power and Influence such plausible and popular Pretensions would be among the People when promoted and advanced by such Men His Royal Highness could not be ignorant of That therefore all summed up and duly compared the Dangers attending the Espousing his Daughter to the Prince of Orange were as great if not considerably greater than those that would be incurred by giving her up to the Disposal of the French King for more could not be feared from that than what had been mention'd Therefore they conjured him as he tender'd his own Good and Safety or that of his Posterity or of his Brother or lastly of the hopeful Beginnings of the Catholick Religion in these Kingdoms that he should be persuaded and also persuade his Brother to take the Council of France both in the Disposal of the Princess and other things relating thereto for that the Danger of adhering to the French King was no greater than that on the other side but that the Assistance on his side would be great and powerful as well as Cordial whereas it never could be in the other Party's Power much less in their Interest or Inclination to afford him any Succour in his Troubles but rather to add Oil to the Flame And above all never to be so rash as to suffer himself to be tempted to consent to a War against France for that the Factions would then have their Ends of him as having a full Opportunity put into their hands thereby to compleat his Ruin without Controul These were the Arguments used to His Royal Highness against the March with the Prince of Orange And with which I shall at present conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble Servant Paris Aug. 4. 1679. N. S. LETTER LVIII Proposals made to the Duke of York about consenting to have his Daughter the Lady Mary privately Trapanned into France c. My LORD I Gave in my last to your Lordship a Relation of the Remonstrances used to the Duke in general against his consenting to have his Daughter married to the Prince of Orange I shall now endeavour to oblige your Lordship with some new Proposals made to him upon that Head 1. That the Duke should use all the Power and Interest he had with the King his Brother to let his Daughter the Lady Mary take a Voyage into France to take the Waters of Bourbon or else to consent she might be privily sent away by the Duke as against his Knowledge and Will and that then they would get her speedily married which putting things past Retrieve Matters might the better by good Management be composed and made up to all their Satisfactions 2. That to this purpose the French King would send a most splendid Embassy into England of one of the chief Peers of his Realm with a very numerous Train of choice Nobility But if the King consented publickly to that Proposition the Princess might go over in the said Ambassador's Company Or if he gave private Consent she might be conveyed away as in the first Article 3. If the King should by no means consent to it that then the Duke should contrive a Way to get her seized and shipped off at the Ambassador's Departure without
the King's Privity or Knowledge 4. That if it were done by the King's Consent the Sum of Five and twenty Millions of Livres should be without fail remitted to him at two Payments the first as soon as the Princess should arrive in the Kingdom of France and the other three Months after And that the King and Duke in that Case should seem highly concerned and disposed to declare War against France on that Account and with the Money sent raise Forces as if it were for the War and call to the Parliament for Mony to maintain it which if they granted to take it there was no doubt of their Consent to that After which the French King was to send a very submissive Embassage to England offering to make ample Satisfaction for the Injury and to strike up a Peace with Holland at any rate Upon which our King was to take upon him to be appeased and to pretend the Dutch were in the fault that he did not make War 5. That then if there should happen any Motions for Exclusion that His Majesty might make use of the Money and of the Forces raised as aforesaid for his own Security And that if any Rebellion happen'd he might be assured the French King would send him both Men and Money enough in case of Need. 6. That if it were done without the King's Consent he the Duke should pretend himself wholly ignorant of the Rape and seem as much concerned as the King for Satisfaction 7. But that if the King should be so displeased with His Highness as to side with the adverse Party against him after he had stood his Ground as long as he could and made as many Friends as was possible that then he should privately retire to Scotland or Ireland and raise Arms there where he should be powerfully assisted both with Men and Money from the French King who would likewise use Means to raise Divisions among his Enemies by several Methods they had concerted and suddenly discourage them all by an unexpected Peace with Holland tho' there was but little Prospect that Things should come to this Extremity 8. That the Princess still the better to appease the Heats in England should upon her Marriage have in ample manner a Protestant Chapel allowed her and that at the same time the Protestants in the Kingdom of France should be used with extraordinary Kindness and Favour for her sake till a general Peace or other fiâ— time to take off the Mask were come 9. That the better to take off the Edge of the English Fury to a War with France besides the Peace to be made between the French and the Dutch a third War was to be raised by the Hollanders against England and they put with might and main upon new Encroachments and Insolencies against the English 10. That the better to cover all this the Duke was not only to make a Semblance but really to go to the Protestant Church again and to give out with a full Cry that he had been most maliciously traduced and that he never was reconciled to the Church of Rome and that his Non-compliance in some things lately put upon him did only arise in that he conceived such things were not to be imposed upon a Prince as on a Subject I have had the Opportunity my Lord to see several other things of lesser Consequence projected here for the Management of this Affair to the Interest of the French Court with which I shall not trouble your Lordship and remain My LORD Your very humble Servant Paris Aug. 13. 1679. N. S. LETTER LIX Arguments used by the French Emissaries in England to the Royal and Church of England Party against the matching of the Lady Mary with the Prince of Orange My LORD THe French Emissaries finding notwithstanding the strong opposition made by them to the matching of the Lady Mary with his Highness the Prince of Orange as I have some time since informed your Lordship that there was a very strong Current in the Nation for that Allyance and having informed their Principals in the French Court therewith they had fresh Instructions sent them to gain if possible the time desired by them which was till a General Peace were concluded and to ply the Royalists and high Members of the Church of England not only close upon that Head but their Instructions were reduced to these Branches 1. They were to represent the Match as dishonourable and too much reflecting on the Honour of Crowned Heads to match a Daughter in so fair a way to be Heiress to three Crowns to a Prince who was not only no Sovereign but descended of a Family which had distinguished it self chiefly by heading a Rebellion against his lawful Prince and who was himself but the chief Officer of a Government so hateful to all Kings as a Common-Wealth and that of one founded by Rebellion too that such an Allyance must needs be more particularly dishonourable to the Royal Family of England which had so lately and deeply suffered by a Rebellion moved against it by their own People chiefly out of an Emulation to be like those Rebels That indeed King Charles I. did match his Daughter to the present Prince of Orange's Father but it was because he was involved in Troubles and had not time or opportunity to dispose of her better and thought by that Match to please the people appease the Faction animated against him and by such a protestant Match allay the Jealousies conceived of his being popishly inclined or having Leagued with popish Powers to their prejudice and lastly obtain some Assistance from the States of Holland in his Distress and yet that after all his projection hereby that Match was condemned by most of his Friends as highly Dishonourable and of very ill Example and Consequence and is charged upon him as one of the great Errours of his Reign and therefore by no means to be reiterated by a new one of the same kind 2. They were to remonstrate That the Prince of Orange was bred in Presbyterian Principles and to exaggerate with all the terrible Circumstances that could be supposed the danger the Church of England and Episcopacy would be in by the accession of such a Prince to the Crown Presbyterians being no less passionate Enemies to the Church of England than Papists and being much the more dangerous of the two as being incomparably the more numerous the strange success they lately had in effecting so total a Subversion as they did of the Episcopal Church in the last Reign under rebellious Leaders being too sensible a proof of both what they could and what they would do again more effectually and more irrecoverably when headed by a lawful Superior and strengthned by the assistance of their Brethren in Holland This my Lord is the substance of the Instructions sent from hence to their Emissaries in England for the managing of the forementioned part and with which I shall conclude this Epistle who am My
LORD Your Honours to serve You. Paris Aug. 23. 1679. N. S. LETTER LX. Instructions given to the French Emissaries whereby to manage the Dissenters and Republican Party in England in reference to the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary My LORD I Have in my last given your Lordship an Account of the French Intrigues in managing the Royal and Church of England Party in respect to the March with the Prince of Orange here follows their Instructions to their Agents with the Dissenters and Republican Party upon the same Head To them they were to use many of the Arguments used to those of Holland of which hereafter and make them believe if they could that if the P. of Orange should come to the Crown of England notwithstanding his Humility now he would fly higher at Absolute Power than any before him or that the present King or his Brother could that under an humble appearance he subtilly hid an aspiring Mind and that having in many things encroached already upon the Power of the States General he would totally oppress them and by that accession of Strength raise his Authority in England to what pitch he pleased and Adieu to all hopes of a Common-wealth there when that of Holland should be subject to his Scepter and Adieu to all expectation of making Presbytery the predominant Religion there for that it was almost incompatible with a moderate Monarchy much less with Absolute Power and that whatever Principles the Prince had been bred in as to Religion though he might like them well enough as a Member of a State with whose Constitutions they perfectly agreed it was not to be doubted that when he came to be a Monarch and so powerful an one too as the United Provinces thrown into the weight of three Crowns would make him but he would like most Princes make his Religion conform to the Model of his Politicks and when he became a Monarch and so great an one too take up Monarchs principles which could be no other than Popish or such as exceed them if possible in malignity viz. Those of the Tantivy Sons of the Church of England none else agreeing with despotick Rule so that whatever hopes they might flatter themselves with from such a Match and the Prince's accession to the Throne they should find themselves so far disappointed as not to have any reason left them to expect as much as a Tolleration in Religion and the Freedom of their Consciences Which with my humble Respects to your Lordship is all I have to Communicate at this time who am in all lowly Observance My LORD Your Honour 's to Command Paris Sept. 5. 1679. N. S. POST-SCRIPT My LORD SInce I had finished my Letter I happening occasionally to run over some of our Minutes I thought fit to sub-join what I meet with there briefly inserted in order to the management of meer Politicians and Adiaphorites in Religion upon the account of the Prince's Match and to them the forementioned Emissaries were to suggest on the contrary that the Prince though he should in time by virtue of the said Match come to be King of England yet that it could not be thought but that still he would continue a Dutch-Man in all his Inclinations sacrifice our Commerce and Interest to those of that Nation yea and perhaps part with the chief Prerogatives of the Crown to make the King of England like a Doge of Venice or Dutch Stadt-holder c. which though sufficiently ridiculous I could not forbear noting to your Lordship who am My LORD Yours c. LETTER LXI The Arguments used in Holland by the French Emissaries to the Lovestein Faction against the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary c. My LORD IF it was any pleasure to your Lordship to peruse the Accounts I have already given you of the Stratagems of this Court to incite the Church of England and Dissenting Parties against the Match with the Prince of Orange as I am desirous and I hope not unwilling to interpret your silence in that regard to imply it I cannot think it will be less to your Honour's satisfaction to understand how they managed the same Affair in Holland where no less Subtilty and Address was wanting than in England to divert a Match that predicted no good Omen to France as they imagined the Party in that Republick which their Emissaries had Instructions to work upon were the Lovestein Faction to whom nevertheless they were to address themselves very cautiously and covertly and first to insinuate to them and by them to the State-Party That indeed it was true the Illustrious Princes of the House of Nassau had not only been the first Founders but also the great preservers of their Common-wealth and that it could not be denied but that the present Prince of Orange had very much contributed to its late Recovery after it had been brought to the very brink of Destruction and that they were fully convinced that same Family must remain a necessary Bulwark to their Common-wealth so long as their Interests should continue inseperably intwisted with those of the State but if they should be so blinded as to consent or but tacitely give way to any Steps that might alter those of the Prince into any other Channel that same House might in process of time prove the fatal Cadency and Dissolution as it had been the happy Rise and Glory of that flourishing State That the implacability of the Spanish Royal Family against those that have once offended them and their bloody and unjust Proscription of the noble House of Orange had so firmly cemented the Interests of the Princes of that Family with those of the States during the Wars with Spain that there could not possibly any Danger arise to them from that House how much soever they were intrusted with the Authority of the States they being then best secured by the Greatness and Power of that Nay and that after the Peace made between that Republick and the Crown of Spain there could be no Danger from those Princes neither so long as they matched into inferior Princes Families as those of Germany c. which might add Strength but never could Power enough to the Princes of Orange to crush the State or in the least divide from its true Interests But that it might be of the dangerousest Consequence if any of them were suffered to match into the Family of any Crowned Head and especially of any near Neighbour to the Republick for that would be an effectual Means to fill their Heads with aspiring Thoughts and great Designs to Aggrandize themselves and might afford them Power enough to put them in Execution a Temptation too strong for almost any active spirited Prince to resist And therefore such an one as this present Prince ought by no means to be exposed to by any wise States-men whose Interest it was to keep him from it and who had Cunning enough to put him by it That
never any of His present Highness's Predecessors have been ever as much as suspected of aspiring at any Power over the Commonwealth but what tended to its greater Security and for the Elevation of the Majesty of the Republick without the least Glances of assuming any to themselves unless it were His Highness's Father who in all probability was animated thereunto by his matching with a Daughter of England And that his Ambition might have proved fatal to the Republick beyond Retrieve if his immature Death and other seasonable Providences had not intervened That the Influence of that Match had proved very detrimental to that illustrious House by stirring up such a Jealousie in the States against them as would not suffer them to admit the present Prince for a long time to enjoy the Places of Honour Authority and Trust formerly so well maintained and officiated by his noble Ancestors And that at the same time it had proved as pernicious to the States themselves in creating and nourishing Factions among them and Endeavours to keep up the Republick upon a new Model without Captain-General Stadtholder Admiral c. and to deprive themselves of the so necessary and Auspicious Assistance and Conduct of that most Illustrious House and thereby exposed even almost to be made a Prey to the dangerous Ambition of the French Monarch And therefore now when they had so newly re-enter'd into their true Interests and happily re-fixed all things on the old Foundation by restoring the present Prince to the Dignity of his Ancestors and calling him to the Helm of the Tempest-beaten State and had by his Courage Conduct and Interest recovered the Common-wealth to a very hopeful Condition of Power and Prosperity again it would be no less than a Madness to venture the Ruin of all those fair Hopes by a second Match with England when by the former they had been almost all Shipwrack'd and to suffer a Prince who was now wholly their own to espouse in such a Marriage as was then in Agitation a Foreign Interest and such as in all probability could not in time but interfere with theirs And therefore desired it might not be 1. Because though the Prince's Intentions should happen to continue never so right and firm to the Interest of the Republick yet this Match could not but be still very detrimental both to him and them by causing incurable Jealousies Factions and Animosities amongst them without end and which could not but be of pernicious Consequence to them both 2. That by reason of the little probability of the Duke of York's having any Vivacious Male Issue this would give the Prince such a near Prospect of the British Crowns that it could not but engage him in that View upon all Occasions to strain his Power and Interest in the United Provinces to the utmost for the advantage of the English Nation to the prejudice of the Dutch increase of Power and Interest 3. That if he ever came to be King of England the Power he would thereby obtain added to that he had already in the United Provinces as Stadt-holder Captain General c. and to the great Influence he had among the Soldiery in the States pay would undoubtedly be a great temptation to him for to reduce that State under the English Crown and influence the others to assist him in it And that if he should have Issue by his Princess as it was likely enough he might the danger under that Circumstance would be in a manner inevitable It s likely my Lord our Politicians here forsaw very great Difficulties would arise in making any manner of Impressions upon the States against the Prince's Match for by the foresaid Remonstrances it does appear to me their Master-battery was turned on that side but though all their Politicks have failed them for the prevention of the Marriage yet they have not failed to put some of these Arguments foâ—â—ards to render the Prince and all his Proceedings suspect to the States and they have already bragged that all the Constancy his Highness is well known to be Master of will find work enough to ver-come the Jealousies entertained of him and which they are resolved never to be wanting on their part to foment and to make it believe that all he has acted since his marriage has been to the aggrandizing of himself and his Authority and the Diminution of that of the Republick I fear I have already too much transgrest by my tediousness and shall therefore only subscribe my self as I am in sincerity My LORD Your Lordships Most humble Servant Paris Sept. 20. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXII Of the Solemn Embassy sent by the French King to King Charles II. in the Year 1677 in order to break off the Match with the Prince of Orange c. My LORD PUrsuant to what I have already mentioned to your Lordship of the Designs concerted between his Royal Highness and the French King about getting of the Lady Mary by a Stratagem into France if their other Measures about hindring the Match were broken was the late solemn Embassy sent over from hence into England whereof the Count d' Estree was the head accompanied with the Duke de Vendosme the Archbishop of Rheims one of our great Minister the Marquiss de Louvois's Sons and at least fifty Lords more of principal Note and whose publick instructions tho' they imported nothing more then a great Complement and some overtures about forbiding any recruits to be sent over to our Land Forces in the service of the Confederates yet privately they were to endeavour a French match and if they saw they could not succeed therein to concert closer measures with the Duke about puting in practise what he had before consented to about geting the Princess his daughter privately convey'd away in Company of this Embassador into France and perhaps your Lordship will not be dissatisfied if I recount what I have heard discoursed one day at this Court between our Commissioner and some other Courtiers concerning the Embassy Said one of them to theother What needed so splendid and costly an Embassy at this time of day to the King of England when there is so little hopes that he durst give his Consent to what we desire of him if he were of himself disposed thereto Yes says the other 'T will be well worth the Cost let things go as they will upon this occasion for 't is a greater honour our King now does to the King of England than he has ever yet done to any other Prince or ever to the Emperor himself when at Peace with him and such an Honour cannot but work sensibly upon the heart of a Prince who is so easily wrought upon and may work some good Effects for us in time if not for the present And however if the worst come to the worst this extraordinary Honour now done him by our Monarch will make his Parliament and People so fully persuaded that he hath entred into an extraordinary
inspired into the heads of the most Stirring and Active Members of the House that the Pretence of War against France was only a Court-trick to get Money and a Standing Army to Enslave the Nation and therefore it were not their best way to trust the King with Money for that purpose unless it were at certain moderate Sums and with such Limitations as might Secure them from any Arbitrary Deligns and from Intrigues with the French and at the same time it was Infused with much Artifice into the King's Head That if he once ventured on a War against France without an Unconditional Vote for sufficient supplies and that in very considerable Sums at once as for example of so much yearly as long as the War lasted that he was an undone and lost Man and would by that false step be infallibly unhinged by which Artifices a Declaration of War against France was so long protracted till the Hollanders despairing of any good from England were necessitated to clap up a Separate Peace which the French with all diligence proposed to them whilst the King and Parliament in England were disputing the Case about Funds for the War My Lord I have been necessitated to recapitulate some things here which I remember I have Written a Larger Account of to your Lordship and that because I could not well otherwise have brought in the succeeding part of Mr. Coleman's History who to say nothing of the Duke having effected the foremention'd Divisions Jealousies and Disputes claim'd his Promised Reward of Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador at London having yet received but one Payment of it but the slie Monsieur finding his Business was so far done that he was able to go on with the rest himself without their assistance put him off at first with Fair Words but Coleman still Renewing his Instances Barillon began to slight his Applications and at last told him in Down-right Terms he had no Orders to Pay him any more Money That he had Receiv'd enough for the Business he had done since there were other Instruments which he had there who had done more and been much more Serviceable in it than himself and in a word That his Master the French King had no further occasion for the Service of such a Sawcy Impertinent and Inconsiderable Fellow as he was Coleman was Netled to the Quick at this Unexpected Treatment which he conceived he had not deserved at their hands and therefore he reply'd again as warmly saying That for his part he had neglected much greater Rewards then what he demanded of him and which was his Iust Due which he might have had from the Confederate Party and that now since he found he was so slighted he should take care to let them see they should find the miss of his Services by what he would and was resolv'd to do for the other side and that he question'd not but to bring the Duke his Master to be quickly of his Mind Barillon thereupon answer'd That his Master would be sure to find them such Imployment in a short time that they should have no leasure to think of serving the Confederates or hunting the French in Flanders having already such a pack of Hounds in a readiness as would quickly snap him and hunt his Master too off his Legs if he did but offer to depart so much from his own Interest as to quit theirs After this mutual Huff Coleman going to take his Leave of Monsieur Barillon the Frenchman retaining still a spice of French Civility came to attend him to the Gate where seeing Coleman's Coach standing right before it Sir said he briskly to him What is the meaning of this that your Coach stands right before my Door that is no place for a person of your mean station and quality That 's strange Monsieur Answer'd Coleman I should be of meaner quality now then I used to be there you know well enough it used to stand But pray where would you have it to stand then continu'd he Two or three doors off cry'd Barillon So indeed said Coleman I used to place it when I went to a Bawdy-house but I did not take yours to be such till now and so adiew It was but a few days after this rencounter my Lord that Coleman was seized for the Popish Plot at the news of which the Discourse was at the French Secretaries that Coleman would certainly pay dear for having adventured to displease the King their Master for that they had perswaded the Conceited Fool to keep his Papers all by him which they flatter'd him were Rare Compositions and Specimens of incomparable Wit and Parts in which they said were things not only enough to hang him out of the way but so to hamper the King and Duke too and involve them in such Troubles that they would be glad to quit all their thoughts of leaning towards the Confederates and so return again to their interests at last as most expedient for them and that they had imployed such Tools as would not fail to Discover all their Inttigues and be in spight of their Teeth forc'd to acts of Repentance and sorrow for what they had done And in fine when Coleman was Condemn'd and the Duke would have interpos'd for a Pardon for him Monsieur Barillon oppos'd it Tooth and Nail and said He ought to be Sacrificed upon that occasion and that if he were not the King his Master would find means to have a worse Discovery made than all that had yet been made to appear out of his Papers or otherwise After Coleman was Hang'd his Wife reduc'd to a forlorn state retir'd into France and presented a Petition to the French King to this effect That whereas her late Husband besides his many other good and timous services done to his most Christian Majesty had upon his instances by his Minister at London hired an House in Deans-yard in Westminster of a considerable Rent some time before that Session of Parliament wherein the matter of a War against the Kingdom of France was to be debated and agitated for the better convenience of Treating some Members of Parliament and some other Gentlemen that had influence over them That he had expended considerable Sums of Mony that way as he had done in like manner among other useful instruments he had in the Country as well as the City for promoting his Majesties Service in England for which he had declined much greater Rewards from the Spanish Imperial and Dutch Ministers and other Agents than he expected or desired from him whom he served more by inclination than Interest and that he had had the good Fortune happily to effect the great task imposed on him by his most Christian Majesties Commands in dividing the King of England and his Parliament and breaking the neck of the intended War against France that yet for all that when his work was accomplish'd Monsieur Barillon had refused to pay him his expences and never had given him one
him to see the Prince and thus Matters stood when the late King died but the Brother succeeding he set all his Engines on work how he might get the Duke of Monmouth into his Clutches Dead or Alive But the French Agents my Lord did not think that now their Interest which in the late Reign they would have given any Money to have effected and therefore by their Correspondents in Holland they got the Duke secretly Advertised of the Danger who thereupon withdrew to Bruxels I know my Lord they gave it out that the Prince of Orange by his Favourite Monsieur Bentink got the Duke made acquainted therewith and that he gave him Money to go to Bruxels it was both Honourably and Charitably done of him if it was so to a distressed Gentlemen with an intent to make the King his Father-in-law more irreconcileable to him now he was King then when Duke of York tho' he was to dissemble it for a time and upon his Accession to the Throne to testifie to the Prince the sincere desire he had to live with him rather as a Father then an Ally and Neighbouring King I have had sufficient Experience my Lord of your great Honour Integrity and good Affection which makes me thus bold in a matter so nice at this time and so concludes My Lord Your humble Servant Paris March 17. 1685. N. St. LETTER III. Of King James's being Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury My Lord IT has been a matter of much discourse and reflection here that our King should be Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and not by one of the Roman Communion it was expected that since he had begun so briskly and openly to declare Himself for Rome that he would not have stuck at being Inaugurated by a Roman Bishop I find by the return made hither upon this Subject that his inclinations were violent enough for the latter but that the Reason of his Non-compliance was that having at his assumption of the Crown declar'd to the Council and by them to his People That he would maintain the Church and State of England as by Law Establish'd and that the Ceremony of his Coronation was such as the Laws of the Land did prescribe The thought it was a little two Early to begin and that by so publick an Act which to be sure would be interpreted not only as the most manifest Violation of the National Constitution but the Preludium to a despotick Power which no man knew the end of I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Repetition of the Arguments used here by the Gentlemen of the Roman Church pro and con upon the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of such a Compliance by a Catholick King to the Church of England which tho the Establish'd one they look upon to be false to the Truth as being matters which I suppose your Lordship cares not for and therefore having nothing further wherewith to entertain you that is worth Transmitting I conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris May 6. 1685. N. S. LETTER IV. Of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle's Invasions and Overthrows and of the Prince of Orange's offering to serve against the former but his offer was Malitiously Interpreted and so Rejected My Lord THE Reason of my long silence to your Lordship I hope will not be interpreted by you as any forgetfulness much less neglect of your Honours Commands and Expectation I am too sensible of the many Obligations that have been heap'd upon me from time to time to be guilty of so Notorious a Crime but the want of somewhat that was Solid and Grateful to your Lordship has been one genuine Cause that obstructed my Correspondence to which I may add what your self knows very well the private Orders given in England to open all Letters whether Domestick or Foreign and since I had for so long a time continu'd to write to your Lordship and that undiscover'd I was not willing for want of a little prudent caution and suspension in such a juncture either to expose your Lordship to any hazard or thereby for ever to exclude my self from any farther Correspondence with you whom I so much Love and Honour But now my Lord understanding that the Storm is over in England by the defeat and death of the Duke as we have had some days ago an Account from Scotland of the like misfortune to have attended the Earl of Argyle I have adventured to Salute you with these Lines and to tell my thoughts freely upon the matter I must confess I never had any great opinion of either of the Expeditions because concerted by Men who had very different ends in what they did the Duke and some others for Monarchy but the greatest part Republicans and therefore I do not wonder the whole hath miscarried especially when I can assure your Lordship both the one and the other were tho' very privately Abetted by French Agents to undertake such an Expedition such a procedure may well be wondred at I confess since there was apparently so little advantage like to arise to the French Court therefrom but besides their loving to fish always in Troubled Waters they have somewhat in them that is very like the Devil who loves to do Mischief tho' with no benefit to himself But whatever the World may think hereof those who are fled that escaped from either Kingdom after the Defeat are as kindly received here as those who formerly fled from the Popish Conspiracy but yet they are daily sifted and examin'd by the Spies that continually haunt them I would gladly know might I have the honour your Lordship's Sentiments of both Descents and the Miscarriage of them to be plain with you I own I have very different apprehensions of them now they are over than I had at first and the rather because the Prince of Orange so much resented it tho' most Maliciously interpreted by the King and his Popish Council whetted on by Gallican Agents When the Prince had the first News of the Duke's Landing in England he acquainted Mr. Skelton the King's Ambassador that the Duke of Monmouth though he were a Person but of indifferent Parts yet he had a Warlike Genius and had more Experience and Skill in the Art of War then most of them employ'd against him That for his part if the King his Father-in-Law pleased he would assist him not onely upon that occasion with his Troops but with his Person also and to that end was sending Mr. Bentinck over to England to know the King's pleasure But Skelton malevolent enough of himself and farther influenc'd with Malice against the Prince by French Incendiaries took care to inform the King before Bentinck came that such Assistance as was proposed by the Prince was very dangerous and much to the same purpose so that upon Mr. Bentinck's Motion the King answered That their Common Interest required that the Prince should stay in Holland and gave such
further expressions of his Mind upon that occasion that plainly discover'd that such a Zeal in the Prince was esteem'd unseasonable and not free from Suspition With which and a grateful acknowledgment of all your Lordship's Favours to me and my Family upon all occasions I shall now conclude and for ever remain My Lord Your Lordship 's Most humble Servant Paris August 24. 1685. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Methods proposed and Arguments used to King James for carrying on the Dispensing power My Lord THAT the King intends to Assume a Power into His Hands of Dispensing with Penal Laws against Recusants I believe your Lordship may be sensible of by this time since it 's manifest that notwithstanding the Parliaments Remonstrance to the contrary he retains the Popish Officers still in his Service and that it is so far from being a Secret here that I can oblige your Lordship with some of those Methods and Arguments suggested to him by the Agency of this Court to carry it onward wherein it 's more then whisper'd here he has fully acquiesced It was thought advisable considering the violent Humour of the Nation against the admission of such Persons either into Military or Civil Offices and that all the Cry was That the King had not kept his Word but did thereby Infringe their Laws and Liberties to bring the matter into Westminster-Hall to have the Dispensing Power there Argued upon a particular Case but to make sure of the Judges before-hand to Favour such a Procedure the King was told could he gain such a Point his business were done for ever tho' at the same time it was his undoubted Prerogative to dispense with Laws being an Essential right and an usage in England as ancient as the Kingdom that it was in being at all times and in all Reigns that there were several Acts wherein there had been Provision made for such a Reservation to the King that the Term of Nonobstante which was so common was always a Dispensing with some Law that the Commutation of Punishments are no less a proof thereof And how much more were Remissions Pardons the Restoration of Criminals to their Goods again c That there were Presidents to be met with wherein the King 's of England had suspended the Effects of Laws not only by Dispensations regarding particular and single persons but by a general Suspension in regard to the whole Kingdom That his Brother had done so in cases of the Statute relating to Carriages whereof there was not the least complaint in Parliament neither was it so much as once said that he had thereby exceeded the Just bounds of His Authority That the same had been done by Henry the Seventh his Great Ancestor and Solomon of England in respect to the Act that prohibited the Continuation of Sheriffs in their Office above One Year which in Council was declared null and impracticable because that thereby the King was divested of of his Regal Power in disposing his Subjects I do not question my Lord but you will soon hear of the effects of such Council but whether to your satisfaction therein I have as great reason to doubt as I have a desire to promote it and ever shall to the best of my power who am My Lord your very humble servant Paris Nov. 13. 1685. N. S. LETTER VI. Of the Unjust Complaints of the French Clergy against the Reformed in France My Lord THE Ruin of the Reformed in this Kingdom is as much precipitated as that of a Protestant Church is designed somewhere else and which I believe your Lordship by this time is pretty well perswaded of and to this end the Popish Clergy have accosted the King with a severe Remonstrance against them the sum whereof for want of more entertaining News I shall write to your Lordship at this time They began with the hardiest Lie they could have invented saying That there was nothing included in their Complaint but what was most necessary and could be most clearly jnstified and made good Whereas it is most evident that every title of it tends to Destroy and Persecute and is grounded upon the most manifest Falsities in the World then they begin to charge the Reformed with Calumniating and falsly Accuting the Catholicks that they did not believe the Truths of the Faith as they express it whereas the Protestant Divines here have so far been complyant as to testifie from time to time that the Roman Church retained still those Truths that were Essential to Christianity In that she makes Profession to Believe in one God in three the Incarnation of the Son of God the Redemption of Sinners by the Price of his Blood and divers other Articles contained in the Antient Creeds then they proceeded saying That the design of the Pastoral Advertisement in 1681 was to oblige the Reformed to acknowledge that their Separation was not grounded but upon Suppositions and Jealousies and they hugged themselves that the many Conversions which had been wrought since that time have been almost all procured by this consideration which they call an Invincible Argument that as there could never have been any Just Cause of Separation all those alleadged by the pretended Reformed could never have any sollidity That the Protestant Ministers did their utmost to hinder the People to profit by that same Advertisement either by deterring of them from Reading of the same or else by giving false Explications thereof as they were wont to do of the Holy Scriptures and Works of the Fathers Adding farther That the Exercise of the Reformed Religion had been permitted by the King's Predecessors provisionally only and by reasons which have no longer subsistance that tho' the Clergy had very good Reasons to urge it so as to require a Revocation of the Edicts which contained this permission yet that it was not their present design to insist upon that Point that it was now the only favour they pray'd for for to repress the Calumnies of the Reformed against the Roman Church which were not and which could not be allowed by any Edict being an unhappy Liberty which the Ministers themselves might be ashamed of that such a supposition and Calumny were Crimes Condemn'd by all Laws both Humane and Divine and that the Reformed durst not maintain that those excesses ought to be permitted nor to make their Complaints if the King should forbid them to commit them Then they went to speak of the Method they had thought on to make the King acquainted with the truth of their Complaints they drew up in Two Collumnes the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that which they said the Reformed imputed to them to the end it might be easier for the King to compare them and said most Malignantly That they had avoided the Relating of many thing which exceeded all the bounds of Modesty and which St. Paul himself would not have as much as named amonâ— the Faithful to the end they might create a Suspicion by these
them And it was agreed in general That our King should joyn with the French King in a War against Holland both by Sea and Land but in order to carry the same effectually on it was more particularly concerted I. That they shall both endeavour to draw the Prince of Orange to connive at such a War and to consent to the Abolition of the Penal Laws and Test against the Roman Catholicks with specious Promises of making him Prince of Holland secure his Succession in England and of many other great Proffers and Advantages but in case he proves stiff to endeavour to make a total Conquest of that Country and share it between themselves as was projected in the last Dutch War And whereof to the best of my Remembrance I have give your Lordship a particular Relation and then to find out some effectual Expedients to put the Prince of Orange by too of his Succession in England II. That upon supposal that the Prince shall refuse to comply with them in their projected Designs that then the English and Scotch Forces shall be recalled out of the Dutch Service and be sent immediately into that of France to be employed for a Time in remoter Campaigns towards Spain or Italy and for want of such Service in Garrisons for fear they shall turn Tail and revolt and so the Prince and the States of Holland shall be before-hand weakened and the French considerably strengthened III. That some thousands of the French choice Men as of the King's Gentlemen Musqueteers and others shall insensibly be brought into Enland if the King finds his Occasions so require it to be mixt with the English Troops under Pretence of learning the other a more perfect Discipline IV. That they shall both joyn their Forces at Sea with all Strength possible V. That a good Body of French English Scotch and Irish Troops shall be put on Board both the Fleets that so a Mixture may be made in both to the end it may create less Jealousie and that the rest of the English and other Brittish Troops that can be conveniently spared from England shall be employed in the Land-Armies against the Republick of Holland VI. That after the War be once declared such French Refugees as will shew themselves willing to serve under the English Banner against Holland shall enjoy the Revenues which they had in France tho' they shall not be suffered to dwell there VII That neither side shall desist from the War till a total Conquest be made of the said Country which they think themselves sure enough of And that when Holland shall be subjected by their united Force there will then be no more Fear of any Opposition in England to prevent the King from raising Arbitrary Power and the Roman Catholick Religion there to the same heighth as it is in France nor from concurring with the French King till he shall obtain the Empire for himself VIII That the French King shall pay all the Brittish Forces in Flanders and elswhere and be content to defray half the Charges of the War that our King with his Pecuniary Assistance may be enabled to hold on the War with Vigour and Constancy enough for to make a Conquest but that afterwards for a Recompence he shall be obliged to assist France in any future War with thirty Capital Ships and twenty thousand Men at half Charges born Your Lordship knows much better to make a a Judgment of such a League than I can pretend to but I perceive the effect will be dreadful not only to poor Holland but to England too without the neighbouring Potentates be timemously awakened to ward the Blow and that such worthy Patriots as your self rowse up and stand in the Gap But I pretend not to dictate to your Lordship what every generous English Man's Duty is to God and his Country upon such an occasion and so conclude with subscribing my self My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 24. 1687. S. N. LETTER XXIII Of Methods to be practised by King James for keeping up the Dispensing Power and and particularly about discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord I Have upon another occasion hinted somewhat to your Lordship of those Arguments urged to the King for the promoting of the Dispensing Power and you know very well since it has been put in practise in Westminster-Hall in the Case of Sir F. H. and how that matter terminated to the King's Satisfaction and further heightening of his Perogative Royal and how the same was established by the Concurrence of the Judges of the Land if they may be so called who authorized the same These Points being gained another Matter and that of an higher Consequence was agitated in the Cabinet Council viz. to use some means totally to discard the Militia of England and in liew of them to retain standing Troops in the Nation and to throw a little Dust in the People's Eyes and amuse them so as that they might take little notice or at least not oppose those their Proceedings it was advised to act these previous things In order to Ballance the great Power of the City of London it was projected to grant a Charter to that of Westminster and that under the Pretence of its being the Royal Residence of the Kings of England and of the supreme Court of Parliament and therefore ought to be dignified with as ample Previledges as any City in the King's Dominions London it self not excepted and to have a Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen Sheriffs and all other Officers necessary both for the Support and Grandure of it that great Encouragement should be given to rich Merchants wealthy Tradesmen c. to dwell there and to transport a great part of their Trade thither which would cause them to stick close to the Court and Interests thereof And had this same Project gone on it was also projected to have a new Stone-Bridge imitating that of London but built much broader and more convenient erected between the Palace-yard and the Horse-Ferry and the King seems very eager and forward to promote so useful a Work Then the Mews was to be ditched round and great care taken as well as Expedition used to have it filled with Stabling and other Buildings fit to receive and lodge a good Body of Horse and to be made a Cittadel under Pretence that such Troops should not be Troublesom and a Burthen to the said City And when all this was accomplish'd which was concerted to have been brought about in a short Time then the Militia of the Kingdom was to be new modelled two or three Times over and the new Lords Lieutenants of Counties and other Officers chopp'd and chang'd to the Court's Mind who should shew themselves willing to obey the Orders they were to follow which were to this effect That the Militia should be ordered to meet in their several respective districts and there the Lord Lieutenants for the Time being were to acquaint them That since to
serve in the Militia was but a trouble to them as well as a Charge and Burthen to the Country yet without any Use or Security to the Crown or Kingdom when all our Neighbour Nations were armed with Veteran Troops the King was advised and now thought fit to discharge them of the Trouble and the Country of the Charge of maintaining of them for the future and so order them to deliver up their Arms to be distributed among regular Troops that would be more useful and serviceable But before this was to be put in Execution it was my Lord resolved a Toleration of Religion should be first granted and severe Orders given to the Soldiers for to pay their Quarters duly demean themselves quietly and orderly and to abstain from any manner of Violence and all manner of Persons as well Protestants Dissenters from the Church of England as others of the Roman Communion should be admitted into the Army either as Officers or Soldiers and if any of the Church-men should grumble thereat and begin to stomach it it should be alledged There was no Reason in the World the King should be deprived of the Services of any of his Subjects however denominated as to their respective Religions for the Carping of a few Churchmen who were more concerned for their own worldly Interests and so would have all Places of Profit confined to those of their own Stamp than they were for the real Interest of the Church Then there were to be sufficient Bodies of Soldiers to be placed all over England to assist the Lords Lieutenants to see all the forementioned Orders put quietly in Execution and ready to suppress any Tumult that might be occasioned thereby This my Lord was the Projection I shall endeavour to give your Lordship in my next an account of the Opposition made hereunto as this and the rest have been lately entred here in our Minutes from Papers transmitted by the Resident of Modena and Count Dada the Pope's Nuntio in England to the Resident of that Name and Papal Nuncio in this Kingdom and by them communicated to Monsieur Louvois till then I am and ever shall be My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 9. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXIV Of the Opposition made by several Noblemen and particularly by the Lord Marquess of Powis against discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord 'T Is but a few Days since I sent to your Lordship the particular Resolutions formed in the Cabinet Council of discarding the Militia and other Methods that were to be pursued as either previous to or subsequent of such a Design and now I can assure your Lordship That same Project was chiefly broken by the Marquess of H. D of N. and some other Noble Persons and worthy Patriots but the Marquess of Powis had a greater Hand in it than any of them as being of greater Credit with the King who represented how dangerous and in a Word how impracticable such a Project was For said he it will be impossible to find such Lord Lieutenants in the Kingdom as will undertake to put the same in Execution nor no Officers that will obey If they could find such that such a Practice would necessitate the King to call in a French Army which would as much inslave his Majesty to the French as his own People would be thereby inthralled to him and that he might assure himself the French Faction had no other Intent in advising him to it So that I find my Lord it was resolved to let the Militia alone as it is and go on to secure their Proceedings by stuffing the Army with a Mixture of Nations as well as Perswasions and to chop and change them so often till at last they shall get Roman Catholicks enough in their Troops so as considerably to out-number the Protestants there without calling in any Bodies of French Which Resolution as I find it did not fully content this Court so it hath madded them to use Stratagems to counterpoise it by putting the King upon unseasonable and impolitick Artifices and among others to model and pack Parliaments whereof I shall be able in my next I think to procure your Lordship the Projects laid before him humbly hoping you 'll take all in good part from one that has an English Heart and will love both his Country and your Lordship whilst I am Paris Feb. 17. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXV Propositions made to King James II. by the French Agents for modelling and bridling of Parliaments My Lord I Find abundance of Projects offered to the King by the Agency of this Court concerning modelling and bridling of English Parliaments some were for putting in Execution the Advises given formerly for that purpose to King I. I. specified I think in Rushworth's Collections to which I refer your Lordship but that Proposition was rejected and others of more modern date urged upon him and particularly there were some who would have him procure a Parliament by Oliver Cromwel's Methods chiefly to be composed of the Officers of the Army with an Intermixture of some few others and that being effected he might by them increase very much the Revenue of his Crown by setting up again the Court of Wards and the Right of Purveyance and by obliging all such Noblemen who were by their Tenures anciently obliged to furnish so many Horse and Men and other Necessaries in the Wars either against France or Scotland to supply a full Equivalent towards Ships Men Artillery Provisions c. for a War with the Republick of Holland or any other Enemy whatsoever which they would have called for the greater Amusement of the People a restoring to the Crown the Jewels which had been usurped from it which that it might be further secured it was likewise advised That a Star Chamber with the same Jurisdiction as in the King's Father's Time should be set up again as also an High Commission which last tho' a sort of Tribunal introduced into England since it had proved schismatical and that the Kings thereof had been declared Head of the Church yet it might very well serve a present Turn and give the less Jealousie of his designing to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion among them thereby but that if he did not look upon that Expedient seasonable and that the rather because it had been abolished in Parliament as a Grievance to the Subject he had no reason to oppose the setting up of an Ecclesiastical Commission since the Parliament themselves had erected the same tho' with a more limited Power than the other in lieu of it and since they had judged it necessary for the repressing of the Insolencies of the Churchmen regulating their Manners and obliging them to discharge their respective Duties in their several Stations He being a Catholick King had more reason than any other to make use of it the last your Lordship has seen they have gained and tho' the King hath a great Stomach to that other yet my Lord Powis's
Party hath yet prevailed and affrightned him from venturing upon such things without he had been able as he found he was not to have succeeded in pulling down the Militia of Kingdom or at least in getting such an Army which he could fully rely upon and that he hath not yet got neither but till then he could not pretend to declare the Grand Charter void as obtained by Force of Arms and since infringed and nullified by several Rebellions but especially by that in his Fathers time on the Subjects side and now rule by a Council only without troubling himself with any thing more like unto a Parliament as his French Friends Advised him to your Lordship will excuse the Freedom I have now and always used in my Correspondence and accept of my humble duty who am and ever intend to continue My Lord Your Honours to Command Paris April 7. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVI The substance of Pope Innocent XI First Letter to the French King about the business of the Regale I Cannot think but it will be acceptable to your Lordship to understand what the Contents of the Pope's Letters to the French King are especially in such a conjuncture as this is and when I believe you cannot be furnish'd with a genuine account by any other hand after the prefatory part which is short and concise and somewhat different from others of his Predecessors he comes close to the matter and says that he could not but reflect with no small Astonishment as well as great Grief and sadness of heart upon the late unaccountable Conduct of so great a Prince who would be thought to be and called himself the first Son to the Catholick Church and withal the most Christian King against the holy See of Rome that he should as much as pretend to so much Zeal for Religion and yet at the same time to invade the known rights of the Catholick Church not only in the Kingdom of France but even in the City of Rome herself by pretending to a pernicious Freedom of Quarters which all other Catholick Princes had freely and generously renounced as a gross abuse That his Persecuting the Protestants in the Kingdom of France ought no ways to priviledge him to put affronts upon the holy See it was very plain that was not the way to reunite those people to the Church when he himself was so ill a Pattern and shewed them so bad an Example by contemning and outraging that same Authority which he used Force and Violence to make them own That he was much in the wrong and acted preposterously to Prosecute them for not believing what he himself so Scandalously opposed And that for himself at the bottom he was not of a Persecuting Spirit and Principle but that he was fully convinced it was never Christ our Saviour nor any of his Apostles way who themselves never were nor ever used any Preachers with long Tails Boots and Spurs c. That such a practice had done most disgrace to and created as well it might more implacable prejudice against the Roman Catholick Religion than any thing else whatsoever and so by Consequence had much more obstructed than advanced the propagation of it That it ought never to be used in any Kingdom already infected with heresie tho' it 's true it were a very good fence against its creeping in where it had yet got no footing That it would be a means to blast all the blooming hopes of the Catholick Cause in the Kingdom of England and ingender pernicious Jealousies and a most cruel Opposition in the English a stiff necked people and the most Jealous of their Religion and Liberties of any Nation upon the Earth against their King who was a true Son of the Church and break the Neck of all his designs for the Introducing of it into his Dominions And in a word that he was so far from approving of it that he every way disliked it and that it should not throw dust in his Eyes from inspecting into and opposing of his incroachments upon the holy See which he was resolved to defend to the utmost extreamity and so concluded with a short admonition and with which concludes this Letter to your Lordship from him who is My Lord Your most Devoted Servant Paris June 3. 1687. LETTER XXVII An account of Pope Innocent XI Second Letter to the French King about persecuting the French Protestants c. My Lord SInce my last I have had the opportunity to take the Heads of another Letter written soon after that I have already sent you by the Pope to the French King and is to this purpose In the first place he takes upon him to refute the Answers and frivolous Complaints of the French King and then descends to ridicule his vain pretence of Piety in persecuting the Protestants of his Kingdom for denying him Obedience while he was no less severe to the Bishops of Alet and Pamiers and some other Ecclesiasticks and even to some poor Abesses and their Nuns for paying that Obedience which was due to the papal Authority that this â—id not only look like it but really was nothing less but building up the Church with the Left Hand and at the same time pulling it down with the Right That he was well informed what writings came out in France against his Authority which he well knew was that of the holy Apostolick See what Theses were there maintained and what was done by his over awing the Assembly of the Clergy of his Kingdom how and what method he had taken to vel the French Jesuits against him and imployed Maimburg to represent his supremacy as precarious Itineran and Ambulatory and not fixt to the City of Rome herself but only to the Capital City of the most powerfull Christian Prince in the World for the time that is gallice to Paris in the present Age that he well understood not only this but also the designs that were formed by him to erect a new Religion which should Totally swallow up and deâ—our both Roman Catholicks and â—rotestants and how far he purposed to imitate King Henry VIII of England who writ a Book for the Pope's supremacy and not long after Burnt aed Beheaded people for owning it when also at the very same Time he persecuted the Protestants for opposing other points That it very ill became and it was not the part of a Dutifull and Religious Son â—s he pretended to be and would have the Woâ—ld believe to abuse his supream Pastor to dispoil him not only of his Ancient rights granted him by his Pious Predecessors but even of those very ones which he then injoyed and were derived by Universal consent and constant tradition of all good Catholicks and of the rights of his just Sovereignity in the City of Rome herself That however let him the French King do what he pleased yet all that ever he should or could do should not make him abate the least jot or tittle of his
just pretensions about the Regale nor the franchises of Quarters but that he was resolved to be Pope in France and Sovereign in Rome from which no Force should ever make him depart or flinch back the least degree whatever Dangers he were exposed unto This great Constancy My Lord in the old Pontiff hath not a little appalled the exorbitant Pride and Fury of this Court however they have put the best Faâ— they can upon it and seem resolved to break through all Opposition and outbrave whatever shall be in their Way and divert their Resolution and I am assured the French Embassador Lavardin at Rome hath already pursuant to his Orders from hence highly menaced the old Dad who in a third Letter to the King has made answerable Reply of which I am pretty confident I shall in my next transmit to your Lordship the Particulars but in the mean time remain My Lord Your Faithful Servant Paris june 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVIII The Contents of Pope Innocent XI's third Letter to the French King in answer to that of hâ—â— wherein he shews his Folly and Mistake in his Pretentions and Demands and threatens the Censure of the Church against him and shews the Inconveniency and Danger of setting up a Patriarch in France c. My Lord I Wish your Lordship as much Satisfaction in the perusal of this Letter as I have in keeping my Promise made to you in my last about the Pope's third Letter in getting Sight of the Minutes whereof I have met with much greater Difficulty than I expected or was usual with me I have already hinted Monsieur Lavardin's Menaces made at Rome upon the subject matter of the former Letter and therefore the Pope begins his with answering those Menaces that imported that the King should affranchise France from the Roman See nominate a separate Patriarch there â—and elect Bishops of his own without having any Recourse to the Bishop of Rome and in the mean while invade the Pope's Territories with his Arms and force the Franchises for his Ambassador and fiercely replying That he is resolved as in Conscience bound to do to transmit the Franchises and all other Rights of the Apostolick See to his Successors as he found them That he would recognize or allow of no Bishops of the King 's nominating till he had Satisfaction about the Regale that if he would be so heady as to proceâ—d â—o nominate a new Patriarch it would make a greater combustion in his Kingdom than he was aware of to which his Persecution of the Protestants would not a little contribute which he should find would be very unseasonable for him and would in all likelihood raise all Christendom against him as well as his own Subjects that thereby he would make a wide Gap to let in an Inundation of Heresies which he pretends to keep out and would teach the People after they had once trampled on the Pope's Authority to trample at last on that of the Bishops and King 's too and even on their very Persons as they had done in England and that when he had pulled down the mighty Dam of the Papal Power and let that raging Sea in it would be out of his Power to stop it where and when he would wherefore he conjured him and his Clergy to consider seriously yea twice and thrice of that weighty Project before they went to put it in Execution lest they might when they found it too late repent it and in vain attempt to recal the same That he must not think to fright him with the Noise of an Invasion for that tho' he would neither arm himself nor the rest of the Princes of Italy against him as he might do but oppose only Prayers and Tears yet if he desiâ—â—ed not from his pretended Regale and Franchises he would excommunicate Lavardin his Embassador and interdict his Kingdom and and set it in such a Flame about his Ears as should make him glad to go tamely back again and look after his own Home that after all should he sack and Plunder Rome captivate his Person and have all other Successes he could imagine it would be a very inglorious Expedition for Lewis the Great the eldest Son of the Church and such a pretended Bigot for it for to ravage its Territories and assault the supreme Pastor of it with those Arms with which he was bound to defend it and but a small Triumph to so great a Conqueror to over-power and martyrise a poor helpless and unarmed old Man as he was for whom some of his Predecessors would have been content to have become Martyrs themselves and therefore conjures him to think once more very seriously of it and then to act as he pleased but withal assures him That neither his Menaces nor his Arms shall make him flinch an Hair's breadth from those his last Resolutions wherein he was fully resolved to persist to the last Drop of his Blood Thus my Lord you have the brave Resolution of a Roman Pontiff who tho' the Title and Dignity of Christ's earthly Vicegerent be falsly ascribed to him yet undoubtedly he is possessed of a Soul above that of common Mortals and whom I therefore honour and esteem as I have always done and ever shall your Lordship who am My Lord Your most humble Servant Paris June 28. 1687. LETTER XXIX Of the Tryal and Suspension of the Bishop of London by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission My Lord I Have once and again intimated to your Lordship some Methods that were proposed to be prosecuted in order to the setting up of the King 's Dispensing Power and among other things to the best of my remembrance taken notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission with the Reasons urged to the King for making use of it and now you have seen the Effects of it upon my Lord of London whom some of them have said They were resoved to be revenged on for doing his Duty in the House of Lords by moving after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King for his Speech to that Session after the death of the D. of Monmouth in his own and his Brethren's Name That the House would take the King's Speech into consideration and debate the same but this way was not then resolved on but several others projected which yet they found impracticable when the Commission was agreed to be erected they had even then an Eye to the Bishop tho' no plausible Pretence for the Prosecution of him and therefore the said Commission lay dormant for some Months till such time as they might see the Effects of another Project to be put in Practice which was That some Reglements made in the late King's Reign in the Year 1662. importing among other things The Clergy in their Sermons should not meddle with State Affairs nor enter upon any Question that concerned the Rights of the King's Subjects nor to treat of some Points in Divinity which formerly had created great Troubles in
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
side of the Water for besides that this Court were then and are still at variance with the Papal See There is not the least Instruction transmitted from hence as far as I can find either to England or Rome concerning that matter but perhaps he might receive them in transitâ— and by word of mouth only from M. L. who failed not to see him But as for Count Dada the Apostolâ—ck Nuncio as they call him they have shewed some Concern here that he should have an honourable Reception in England and have order'd it so as to get our King to dispense with that Ceremony which Henry VIII and even his Daughter Queen Mary insisted upon that he should wait like a Mumper at a French Port till he had Leave granted him to enter into England And that the English Nation who had not seen such a Vision for near an Age and a half might not be overterrified with it the French Agents were instructed to suggest unto those Lords and others whom they should think most susceptible of their Sophistry That since the King as a Roman-Catholick Prince could do no less than send an Ambassador to Rome to salute the Pope tho' it were but for form-sake and that his said Ambassador had had such an extraordinary Reception and great Civilities shewed him there it were but very equitable the King in his turn should shew the like to his Nuncio who was a Layman and in that quality came to congratulate his accession to the Throne from his Master not so much as he sate in St. Peter's Chair as he was a Temporal Prince to whose Ministers as such the Law of Nations required a just Deference should be paid That to send a solemn Embassy to the Great Turk who was a Mahumetan and a sworn Enemy to all Christians however denominated was never so much as boggled at by any English-man or other Christian Nation whatsoever either in this or any preceding Age That the Ambassadors of the Emperor of Morocco had been lately received in England most honourably and yet their Master both a Mahametan and a Barbarian Prince in whose Countries Christians were treated more like Brute-Beasts than Men and should they disdain to concur with their Prince to receive with some Ceremony and if not by way of a publick and pompous Entry yet privately in his Palace a Minister from him to whose Civilities many of our English Nobility and Gentry were highly obliged in their Travels to Rome and Italy But what Success they have had in this petty Agency your Lordship can tell much better than I at this distance but the Duke of Somerset is as highly exclaimed against here for refusing to perform the Ceremony of introducing the Nuncio as the Duke of Grafton is applauded for doing of it who I hope for all that will never have the Thanks of a House of Commons for it I am My Lord Your very obedient and humble Servant Paris Nov. 2â— 1â—87 N. S. LETTER XXXIV The French Politicks to embroyl England My Lord THE French Emissaries having gain'd severat Points and particularly that mentioned in my last they have lately turn'd their Batteries another way They have been most of this while endeavouring to compass their Ends by putting the King and those who have most influence over him upon desperate courses whereof the most material I have as Occasion has served noted to your Lordship It will hardly be believed that they would offer to propose any Maxims to the Legal Party in England that are really for their advantage Did not their Instructions make it appear to be so tho they have proposed far different Ends therein I do not question but your Lordship has observed the Uneasiness of the Nation under the present Proceedings of the King and Court-party but tho they have just cause of suspicion I must assure your Lordship the same has been and may still be aggravated by the Agents of this Court who teach them to infuse into the People That the Protestant Religion is in great danger That the reduction of the Roman-Catholicks to the Bounds establish'd by the Law of the Land is highly necessary and without the latter be effected it will be impossible for the former long to subsist That it was visible the Privileges of Parliament were infâ—inged more than in any time of their Ancestors That Arbitrary Power was already acted and without timely prevention would get such rooting that all the power of England could not dethrone it That there was not scarce one made a Nobleman since the Kings accession to the Throne in the Three Kingdoms but such as were Pâ—pâ—sts and That all Honours and Offices of Profit either in Court or Camp were shared amongst such whilst the Protestants lay neglected as useless persons and such as were deem'd to have no Share nor Lot in the Government That the person of the King it 's true was sacred but at the same time it was not only justifiable but an incumbent Duty upon them as Englishmen as they would answer it to God and their Country timously to think of the Danger and to apply the Remedy for without the removal of such Ministers as then managed the State it would be in vain to expect their Grievances could be redressed and their Religion and Liberties secured and if they find themselves harken'd to and their Propositions approved they have further Instructions to hint an Association for one Expedient c. God Almighty knows what will become of poor England amidst so many Designs upon her Religion and Liberty both by foreign and domestick Enemies who continually prey upon her Vitals I can but pray for her as I do and always shall for your Lordship who am My Lord Your most devoted Servant Paris Dec. 13. 1687. LETTER XXXV King James tho' already much disposed put more out of Conceit with the Prince of Orange who is represented by the French Agents very illy to him My Lord I Have in my last suggested to you some of those Arguments the Emissaries of this Court have and are to use to the Church of England-men as they find occasion and a disposition to receive them for to put them upon violent courses to their own and Nation 's destruction But at the same time they have entertained an incurable Jealousie of the Prince of Orange and construe the most just and generous Actions of a Prince who was always so in the worst sense imaginable and as such represent them to the King whom they cunningly whistle in the Ear saying That he could not but know there were some persons in the Nation who were not pleased with his way of proceeding and therefore would be sure to take all Opportunities to oppose him That indeed now Monmouth was cut off they had no plausible Head to retire unto That for the Prince of Orange tho' he had apparently omitted nothing since His Majesty's advancement to the Throne for the maintaining of a fair correspondence with him and
this King at Rome receiving Information that some of the Pope's Marshals were got within his Quarters he ordered his Men to seize them and commit them to safe Custody the Cardinal de Estree has endeavoured to alleviate the matter and mollifie his Holiness Resentments saying That certain Persons who were no great Friends to France had set them at Work with a design to irritate Matters yet further between the two Courts that he might be pleased to consider that in the Posture Affairs then stood that is after his Holiness had accepted the Mediation of the King of England it would look ill to admit any Innovation but the Cardinal was asked Whether the King of France was Sovereign in the City of Rome And supposing he had been really so was there any Justice to arrest People as they passed along the Streets that had a Design to make no manner of Attempts upon any That it was never yet known in any Country or heard of in the World of any Law that condemned a Man upon a bare Suspicion but supposing that were true as it was not yet it was most certain that the Punishment was reserved to the Sovereign and not to an Embassador who whatever Latitude he would have allowed to his Authority could not pretend to any more than to be independent in his own Person that as for his Domesticks if they pretended to the same Exemption with himself it was no farther allowable than they demeaned themselves Regularly as they ought to do for if they did otherwise they were subject to the ordinary Iurisdiction of the Place they were in That there were a Thousand Examples for it though there had been some Embassadors who had endeavoured to extend the Privilege of their Domesticks so far as to maintain that they ought to be affranchised That this pretended right of Sovereignty by Embassadors was so far from beng true that they had not as much as Power to punish their own Servants for there could not be any one Example produced that any Embassador has intruded so far as to condemn any Person whatsoever to Death tho' there have been many who have justly merited such Punishment That it was true they had sometimes reclaimed them when fallen into the Hands of ordinary Iustice but that at the same time it had always depended upon that of the Sovereign to concede that Favour to them or refuse them according as they were more or less just These things being granted which could not be otherwise for they carried their own Light with them how could it be justified that a bare Embassador should dare to arrest not only his own Servants but the Officers of a Sovereign Prince and that even in his Capital City and to heighten the Extravagance of such an Action even in the very Sight of him Thus my Lord has the Old Gentleman resented the Injury and I am afraid our King will have but little Joy of his Embassy and in this Particular come short of his Grandfather's Motto of Beati Pacifici however his Zeal here for the Good of the Roman Catholick Church is highly applauded but whether it be a Zeal without Knowledge I le leave to your Lordship to determine and think my self happy in any Opportunity to serve you who am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris July 2. 1688. S. N. LETTER XXXIX Of the Seven Bishops being committed to the Tower of London and the French Intrigues to embroyl that matter My Lord THE Commitment of the Bishops to the Tower and the Birth of the Priuce of Wales are things so agreeable to the Gusto of this Court that they are overjoy'd at it about the former of which this Court has been very busie I will not positively say the Presbyterians had the first hand in it tho' they have taken care to enter it into our Minutes so and that they being willing to make some advantage of the Contests of the Court got it suggested to the King by the means of the Romanists That in order to engage the Parliament to establish Liberty of Conscience it was necessary the Bishops should be order'd to injoyn the reading the King's Declaration in their respective Diocesses That the matter could not be scrupled by them since the publication of the King's Orders had been at all times an Usage in England as well as in other Countries But however this matter was first started my Lord I will not take upon me to determine but it was carried on by strange Instruments for as soon as ever the Bishops had refused to read the Declaration and addrest themselves to the King upon that account with their Reasons for noncomplyance the Jesuits about him egged briskly on by such as are entirely at this Court's Devotion represented to him the great Affront offered to his Authority and the Regal Dignity itself by such a Refusal and how if he suffered the same to go impunedly it might open a Gap for it to be trampled upon without reserve and who could tell where it would terminate That since he had already in all other points carried the Rights of Soveraignty to a great height surely it was not now time to dissemble and wink at an Adventure that put such narrow Bounds to his Regal Authority That there was therefore an absolute necessity to call them to a severe account for such an audacious Act That they might be tryed by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission and with as much Justice everywhit suspended as the Bp of London was and what would be a mighty Advantageous Consequent thereon was that the Privation of the Episcopal Authority would advance the Regal Authority to such a pitch as to be held in veneration by all the People You know my Lord the Success these Remonstrances have had but the variation of the Bishops Tryal is disavowed by this Court and the cause of their being brought into Westminster-Hall attributed to the Chancellor's swaying the King and for which some have gnashed their Teeth at him Upon the Acquitment of the Bishops the English Jesuits were horribly spighted and the French Emissaries laughed in their Sleeves and that they might embroyl the Nation more had Orders to insâ—uate into any whom they thought fit for their purpose That the Regal Authority had that Property in it that it oftentimes subsisted more in Imagination than Effect That if the People did but once know their own Strength they would find it an easie matter to shake off the Yoke which certain Puissances imposed upon them and with a great deal more but in general Terms to the same purpose with which I shall not at present trouble your Lordship But they have at the same time spirited up the Jesuitical Court-Faction to importune the King without any Intermission to review the Bishop's Cause and bring them on to another Tryal alledging to him That such a Failure would undoubtedly add a Triumph to the People whereof they had already given but too clear Signs and
it has had your Lordship may know much better than I but it is now talked here that it has met with so little success that most of those persons whom the King had convened as aforesaid have formed a close Conspiracy against him and to cut their way short resolved to seize his Person and that my Lord C being pitched upon to execute the Design he dexterously engaged the King to go to view the Vanguard of his Army which was that part of it which was posted nearest the Enemy That the King was ready to take Coach and ride thither when his Nose falling to bleed on a sudden obliged him to stay for that time and put off the review till another opportunity But before that day was over he had good Information given him that there was a Design formed to seize him and that measures were concerted to have him carried away to Exeter and that my Lord C upon that with some others withdrew to the Prince of Orange as did the King to London I would not have troubled your Lordship at this time but that I know you expect I should give you the Sentiments of this side upon our affairs and what part they take therein Which with my humblest Duty to your Honour is all I have at present to impart to you who am My Lord Yours to serve and obey Paris Dec. 4. 1688. N. S. LETTER LI. Of the Queen and Prince of Wales's going over into France My Lord THE King's Affairs are looked upon here to be lost beyond all human relief and the Prince of Orange is now as much dreaded as they heretofore made a semblance of despising and neglecting of him tho in reality there were ever since I have known this place secret Fears of his great Constancy Policy and Courage hanging upon this Court and all the Hopes they have now left and the only Twig to hang by is his Petite Highness who after great difficulties is with his Mother arrived here and of which some of their Attendance give a lamentable relation That upon my Lord Dartmouth's refusal to let the young Gentleman cross the Seas he was carried back to London whither the King was also come from Salisbury who with the Count de Lâ—uzune who presented himself at Court the â—â—st of the last Month concerted measures for the escape of the Queen and her Son Signior Riva an Italian and one of the Queens Servants and Monsieur de Labadie another of the King 's Persons of approved Fidelity were intrusted to provide all things necessary for their embarking and for their Journey from White-Hall to the place where the Ship lay They say it was not without very great danger of being stopped and discovered that the Queen and the Child got out of the Court at a time when every thing was suspected and when the Infants crying might have been a means to have broken all the best measures in the World They were put into a strange Disguise and so made their escape by the way of unfrequented Stairs and Places crost the River of Thames and took the Road which leads from London to Gravesend where Monsieur de Labadie had stopped a Vessel for to transport them into France and all the while the Child did not as much as once cry They were in danger several times of being seized by Sentinels and a concourse of People who suspected all whom they did not know to be fugitive Papists and looked upon their escape as a Prey that ran away from them While they were on the Thames they were encounter'd with Wind Rain the fluctuating of the Waves in the horror of a Night so dark that they could not see one another The Queen on the other side of the River waited for a Coach near the Walls of a Church which was harnessed in a neighbouring Inn being all the while exposed to the Rain which continued with great violence But the Curiosity of a man who came out of the Inn with a Candle in his hand put her into a great fear lest she should be known for the person advanced directly towards the place where she stood when Seignior Riva who perceived him immediately followed and encountered him briskly so as that both of them fell into the Dirt by which Diâ—â—â—sion the Queen escaped undiscovered and the man thinking that what befel him was the effect of Chance they both began to excuse the matter which proceeded no further When the Coach was got ready they rid away with all speed and came to the Ship where Labady's Wife who had some Acquaintance with the Captain appearing first did so amuse him with a Story That the Queen was an Italian Lady returning with her Family into her own Country till the Queen was got safe on Board and lodged in the Cabin appointed for her together with the Nurse that carried the Infant The Marquess and Marchioness of Powis the Counts of Dalmon and Montecuculli with other Persons of her Retinue did imbark at the same time with the Irish Captains sent on purpose by the King to have an Eye over the Commander of the Vessel in case they found him any way refractory and deficient in his Duty But of this they say there happened to be no occasion for the Ship being under sail they had an easie Passage and landed at Calais on the 11th of this instant She designed to have staid there for the King her Husband who according as they had concerted Matters between them before their parting was to follow her the next Day but not finding the King come she went for Bologn where two Friers and an an Officer that have made their Escape out of England informed her of the Misfortune which befel her Husband at Feversham and which your Lordship can tell much better than I. From Bologn she journey'd to Montrevil and from thence to S. Germains where she and her Son have had honourable Reception of the King and where King James is hourly expected This my Lord is the Relation they give here of their Flight and dangerous Escape which they count little less than a Miracle and a preserving both of the Queen and her Son to a much better Fortune But tho' this Court put a very good Meen upon the Matter and talk high yet it is at the same time very discernable that they are not a little mortified at the strangeness of the Prince of Orange's Success and the suddenness of the Revolution Which with my humble Respects is all I have to communicate at this Time who am My Lord Your Lordships most devoted Servant Paris Jan. 2. 1689. N. S. POST-SCRIPT My Lord just as I am a closing of this Letter I am informed the King is also arrived at S. Germains and has met with no less Honours from King Lewis than if he were possessed of his Dominions and subjects Affections in as ample a degree as ever he has or could be My Lord I am c. LETTER LII Of the
Prince of Orange's Arrival at London My Lord THis Place is very barren of News tho' there is something I am satisfied a brewing which will appear in Time and all that is novel and extraordinary seems to have been tranplanted to the Brittish I sles from whence we hear That the Prince of Orange who they say is always intent and ever was to improve favourable Conjunctures hath taken Advantage of these Movements to make his Entry into London where 't is confest but with much Regret he hath been received with great Demonstrations of Joy and publick Applause but they say it is nothing but what is usually done to New-comers having been felicitated upon the Success of his Enterprise and thanked for the Zeal which he had testified for the good of the English Nation 'T is also reported That the Nobility have met together and pray'd him to take the Administration of the Government upon him till the Estates of the Kingdom can be called together which is dreaded here by both Courts I can assure your Lordship there have been Instructions issued out from hence already to their Agents at London where they have a great Number tho' under various Disguises for to countermine what ever Projects may be on foot for the establishing a Settlement in England and of which I shall endeavour to transmit to your Lorship the Particulars I am My Lord Your very humble Servant Paris Jan. 27. 1689. S. N. LETTER LIII Instructions given to the French Emissaries to infuse into some English Peers upon the subject-Matter of King James's Deserting of the Crown in Favour of his Interest My Lord IT s not doubted here but that there will be strong Efforts made for the Advancing of the Prince of Orange to the English Throne and by the Returns made of Members to serve upon the present Occasion in the Lower House it is concluded that their Procedures will be much in favour of his Interest and consequently to the Disadvantage of this Court and therefore they have taken care to give them a Bone to pick tho' I know not well what it is for the present But of the House of Lords they have entertained a more favourable Opinion but foreseeing that whatever is agitated among the Commons is also likely to creep into a Debate among the Lords and that the King's Resigion his Evil Administration his Retreat out of the Kingdom and the Compact between him and his People may be called in question They have by way of Precaution given Instructions to their Emissaries slily to infuse into any such Peers as they judge susceptible of such Insinuations but I cannot think your Lordship of that Number That it was true the King's Religion had been a very main Cause to bring those Misfortunes upon himself and the Nation which they laboured under but hereby it could not be thought that should be as much as once debated for a sufficient Ground to exclude him from his Throne That this would appear strange in the Sight of all Nations that a Popish Prince was incapable to sway a Scepter when even in England it self there had been no less than Forty Roman Catholick Kings who had governed England from King Egbert to Queen Elizabeth That it was but the other Day that all the Kingdom had by Addresses on purpose disavowed that Maxime That the two Universities had condemned the same for an Error and that the Parliament in One thousand six hundred and eighty five did believe it to be a thing so pernicious and destructive to a State that they were minded to brand with Infamy all those who would have excluded the Duke of York from the Succession That all the Nation having acknowledged this Prince at a Time when he made open Profession of the Popish Religion it would be a ridiculous inconsequence to pretend that that same Religion was an Hindrance to his reigning as King of England and that as for any previous Compact that might be alledged by ill disposed Men to have been between King and People iâ— was a pernicious chimerical Notion often condemned as a Gap opened to seditious Practices for the imbroiling of the State That surely that Retreat could not be called a Desertion in the King full of Discontent and finding himself abandoned by his Subjects to the Mercy of a Foreign Nation especially seeing the Royal Character the bore did but expose him to the Insults of the People and his Person into the Hands of a Prince that imposed Laws upon him seized him in his own Dominions and gave him Umbrages that ought to presage greater Dangers unto him That the Offers he had again and again made to the Nation and even to the Prince of Orange who protected it to treat with them amicably to leave nothing undone for the redressing of their Grievances could not but be adjudged Reparations sufficient for those Faults that were imputed to him That the Letter he had writ left behind him at Feversham and ordered to be printed with several other Letters which he had actually writ to diverse Persons asserting his Authority and Claim And that the Protestations which no doubt he would make against any Acts of the Assembly to meet if any such should happen in disfavour of him which could hardly be credited and the Measures which he had taken and whereof they heard enough every Day and would doubtless more and more dayly for the Recovery of his Dominions were evident Demonstrations that he had not renounced them And that if they were deserted by him it was because his Person was in no Security there and not the Throne which he still looked upon as a Property appertaining to him alone That he was not the first and only King even of England that had made this Step That Ethelrede in the Time of the Saxon Kings retired into Normandy and that among the Royal Stem of the Plantagenets Edward IV. past over into Flanders without King Henry VI. his Competiter his believing that he had thereby acquired a new Title to the Crown That as to the present conjuncture the King found himself in the Condition of Kings would be very hard if they of all Mankind were the only Persons who were not allowed the Favour to shun a Danger they were exposed to and which could not be avoided but by fleeing from it and that surely it was a Man's Prudence when he saw his House on Fire beyond a possibility of extinguishing it to save his own Life and attend an Opportunity to rebuild it again since he could not save it from burning What Successes my Lord these Remonstrances have met with or may still it may be your Lordship can tell But I can tell you if this fails there is another Mine to spring whereon they rely very much and on which they intend to work with utmost Diligence but I pray God to keep my poor Country from falling again into their Shares from which it now is in so fair a way of being
Instructions given to their Agents in England to insinuate to the King but yet very tenderly what a piece of Unjustice it would be so to disgrace an innocent harmless Princess to whom he had been lawfully married and who had with so much patience bore the Infirmities that attended him and that the consequent of such a Divorce would perhaps be worse than the Divorce it self seeing a Brother would be baulked of the just hopes he had after his Majesty's death of ascending the English Throne c. But since my Lord having found the Parliament and Privy Council disposed very much to favour such an Action they gave their Emissaries of another stamp directions to incite the King to it and to promise to find him out a Princess of this Courts recommendation and procurement in hopes by that means to set the two Brothers at variance and to raise new Factions and Disputes about Succession and if they saw he would not consent yet they had their Creatures ready to whisper it in the Duke's ear as a great secret that if it were not for them he would have consented thereunto but how far these Politicks have been practised your Lordship can observe much better than I at such a distance who am My LORD Your ever obliged and most humble Servant Paris Mar. 2. 1680. N. S. LETTER LXVI Of the Earl of Shaftsbury's being Calumniated by the French Agents to King Charles II. in order to put him out from being President of the Council and from all Publick Administration My LORD THE joy conceived by the Ministers of this Court at the displacing of my Lord of Shaftsbury from his great Office of President of the King's Council and consequently from all Administration of Publick Affairs is as open and unexpressible as the Instruments and Causes of such a change are secret but so far as I have had any intelligence of this grand Affair which I predict to be no good Omen to our poor Country I am free and I hold my self in duty bound to communicate to your Lordship who perhaps will not much wonder at such a change when I tell you that the Emissaries of this Court but more especially the women kind whom I need not Name have incessantly as they have been taught their Lessons been buzzing the King in the Ears with such Calumnies and Accusation as here follow according as they are inserted here They were to lay hold on all opportunities to render the said Noble Lord obnoxious to the King but yet to be very tender in their first attack and therefore frequently to say That truly his President was a person of incomparable Parts and Abilities in matters of State and that to do him Justice he had done his Prince as important service as any of his Subjects That though he had in former times fallen in with the republican interest which was then predominant in the Nation yet he had since shewed so much Zeal for the Monarchy as might justly obliterate all former miscarriages provided still he proved constant in his Devoir and gave no suspition of his being inclinable to re-assume the principles which he seemed once so entirely to have forsaken and when they had again and again made way by such insinuations as these for more desperate Attacks They urged his Majesty might call to mind the time and occasion when as well as of whom the Earl had once said that when a man is wanting to himself he deserves that others should be so to him also and he might consider how false and dangerous a Maxime that was when it referr'd to a Prince or ones Country to whom one is never allowed to be wanting That the Earl had been as good as his word was already sufficiently manifest when he had discovered in Parliament the secret motives that had engaged the King to grant Liberty of Conscience before the late War as well as his Alliance with France and insinuated the designs his Majesty had to retrench the liberty of Parliaments which was indeed no more then to reduce that Assembly within the bounds of their Duty that his conduct ever since in promoting the Test c. gave no small Umbrage that he meant more then a bare exclusion of his Royal Highness from publick Offices That they could not be positive that a change of Government was designed thereby and a new essay for the monstrous Metamorphosis of the Monarchy into a Republick once more but that surely it looked that way For if the thing were considered aright the King 't was true was an Established Prince and now long in possession and in whose person there could be no plausible pretence to induce the people to abandon that form of Government and for the Regal power it self the time was yet too short since a Company of Tyrants had plunged the State into Troubles for to propose an entire abolition of King 's a second time seeing those very persons who went under the notion of Republicans did not so much yet aim for the most part at the change of the form of the Monarchical Government as at the diminution of the Authority and hence it might be reasonably inferred that the Earl well foreseeing he could not proceed directly to that which he aimed at began cunningly to take a round which he judged would conduct him with more safety to the same end And that seeing no possibility of dispossessing the King he had formed a design to disinherit the person that ought to succeed him being assured that the best expedient to destroy the regal Dignity was to disturb the order of Succession And that his Majesty must needs foresee the dangers arising from the Counsells of so pernicious a Man whose authority in Court Parliament and City was equally formidable as his Pollicy I will not take upon me to determine what great services his Majesty has lost by the discarding of this great Statesman he may want it in time and be better perswaded then ever of the Character himself has given once of him upon his resolution of a difficult Case viz. That he had a Chancellor who knew more Law than all his Judges and more Divinity than all his Bishops if these particulars be not new to your Lordship I desire to know it that I may be more cautious for the future in my Intelligence wherein I always aim at pleasing your Lordship Who am Your humble Servant Paris Aug. 29th 1681. LETTER LXVII Of the Duke of York's being in France Twice and Closetted by the French King His Rencounter with the French Ambassadour Barillon His Wives ill success in France Her Petition to the French King Return without Relief and her fatal End My Lord HAD I been able to have given your Lordship some remarkable passages relating to the Duke and Mr. Coleman's History in the time the great Affair of the Popish Plot was in Vogue and Agitation I do not doubt but I should have perform'd a grateful part to you yet I find