Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	duke_n	king_n	york_n	1,205	5	9.9855	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28566	Reflections on a pamphlet stiled, A just and modest vindication of the proceedings of the two last Parliaments, or, A defence of His Majesties late declaration by the author of The address to the freemen and free-holders of the nation.	Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing B3459; ESTC R18573	93,346	137

to break alone with that Monarch which had tired out all Christendom with a tedious expensive War when they were united against him And therefore the best Expedient that could then have fallen into the Heads of the Commons had been to have shewn him and all the Confederates that we were resolved to have stood by our King with our Lives and Fortunes which would have heartned them on to a stout resistance in case of his further encroachments upon them and in likelihood have kept him in some aw whereas the course that was taken had a quite contrary effect and tended more a thousand times to the discouragement of the Confederates than the fruitless attempt he hints at made by the Earl of Danby who was then in the Tower for it So that I believe all Europe will bear me Witness that all the great things the French King hath since done were in a great measure owing to the disorders of our English Parliaments and their declared resolution of giving the King no Supplies upon reasonable terms which rendered the Alliance and Enmity of our King abroad inconsiderable Amongst the great things the French King hath done since the Peace my Author tells us this His Pensioners at our Court have grown insolent upon it and presumed that now He the French King may be at leisure to assist them the Pensioners in ruining England and the Protestant Religion together And they have shaken off all dread of Parliaments and have prevailed with his Majesty to use them with as little respect and to disperse them with as great contempt as if they had been a Conventicle and not the great Representative of the Nation whose Power and Wisdom only could save him and us in our present Exigencies Surely the man that talks thus contemptuously of his Majesty and all the Ministers durst have told us if he could who were these French Pentioners but it was not his design to point out the men but to cast out general Accusations against the King the Ministers and the whole Government thereby to incense the People and to make them ungovernable that so his Majesty might be the sooner necessitated to submit himself to that Power and Wisdom that could only save him and us but might also easily ruine both if things were once put into such a state as his Majesty were no longer Master of that Power As to the Accusation or rather Calumny that the English Ministers are Pensioners to the French King it will easily appear false to any man that doth but reflect on Colemans Letters in 1674 when the King was in a much better condition to oppose and ruine the French designs and enterprizes and the French King had all the Confederates United and in an Actual War with him and there was nothing to fear or hope for but in England yet he then refused three hundred thousand Pounds tho it was pretended it would have assured the Dissolution of that long Loyal Parliament which France feared more than threescore such as have followed it and when at last Coleman descended to 200000 l. and at one time begged shamefully but for 20000 l. He was denied it Monsieur Rouvigni the French Embassadour usually telling him That if he could be sure of succeeding in that design his Master would give a much larger Sum but that he was not in a condition to throw away money upon uncertainties Nor doth it appear that ever Coleman got one farthing at that time And after the discovery of the Plot and the dissolution of the long Loyal Parliament the general Peace having delivered the French King from all Apprehensions of good or hurt from England His Majesty having such ill success in the first short Westminster Parliament and the Divisions of England appearing more fully in the Election of the Second and the year that passed betwixt that and its sitting all which were as well known in Paris as in London it is not to be doubted but he very well understood that there was then less reason to maintain Pensioners in England than before So that we may conclude from that time there hath come but little French Money over into England for Pensions to any Party England being thought in France so inconsiderable by reason of her Domestick Feuds Fears and incurable Jealousies that there is nothing to be feared or hoped from it whereas Pensions are to be imployed in Potent and United States I do not design by this to prove that no French Pensioners are now maintained in England but that they are few and gain but little by it and therefore it is ridiculous to conceive that all our Ministers of State are such and that they should be such fools as to conspire with France to ruine England for nothing or that which is next to it And it is as silly a supposition that the Privy Council and the rest of the Ministers of State who are not Pensioners should not discover those that are as soon as this discontented Gentleman There is a lewd and impossible conceit spread underhand about the Nation that the King himself is a Pensioner to France and all that is pretended to justifie it is only his being able to subsist so long without Parliamentary Supplies Now this I believe is not credited by any men of understanding but yet there are many such who for ill ends speak it in some companies and will shake their heads and shrug their shoulders and look gravely in other companies that they may seem to fear what they durst not speak Now if what I have said before be applied to this instance it will appear more ridiculous for that Pension that may tempt a hungry Courtier who is to raise a Family would be rejected with scorn if it were tendered to a meaner Prince than ours is And it is not to be thought that the French King who is observed to be as sparing of his Wealth as prodigal of his Souldiers would ever be at such an Expence as to maintain our Court and his own for fear the King should unite with a Parliament that would be an Enemy to France no all knowing men understand how little he cares for England if it were quiet at home but as now things stand he scorns it as beneath his Consideration Well but if neither the Ministers nor his Majesty are to be suspected who are I will tell you that in the words of a more knowing man than I dare pretend to be Those that roar most against French Councils and Measures Vnder-hand-bargains and Agreements between both the Kings know they belye their own Consciences and that the French have us in the last degree of Contempt This the Earl of Danby Printed in his own vindication perhaps not ignorant that some of their Ministers did in the year 1677 and 78. before the breaking forth of the Plot declare That Monsieur L. had greater interest and more Friends in England than the Duke of York that

the King had need be on his guard for he was in great danger of running the same risque with his Father when it was likewise inquired what interest amongst the People two great Peers had who have since the Plot been great Pillars of the Protestant Religion tho neither was ever reputed to have any were Ministers and Advisers in 1670 and 71. very good Friends to France and Popery Enemies to the Triple Alliance and to Holland c. It was also said That 300000 l. a year bestowed in Scotland and England among the Factious and Discontented would better serve the Interest of France than any Bargain they could drive with the Ministers Thus far that noble Pen hath discovered who are the French Pensioners and Reason speaks the same thing For if it be the Interest of France to divide England it is their Interest too to do it as cheap as they can and there is no doubt to be made of it but 10000 l. a year divided amongst the London Holders-forth and the Walling fordians on no other condition but that they should declaim stoutly against the King the Court the Ministers France and Popery things which no money could make them forbear speaking against would more effectually engage them to go on in that course than all the treasures of France would the King and Ministers to procure the Ruine of England and the settlement of Popery things which Nature and Education have taught them to abhor And by this means England as they might easily foresee would be so divided that if a Civil War did not follow yet at least there would be no fear of its being in a condition to look abroad and succour its Neighbours To these men is owing all that Contempt that hath fallen upon our English Parliaments both at home and beyond the Seas who by putting the House of Commons upon those things that would disgust the King and all the Gentry in the Nation have done as much as they could to make them first feared and then hated by almost one half of the Subjects and tends as directly to the ruine of that ancient and excellent Constitution as the disorders of the Tribunes of the People did to the ruine of the Liberty of the Romans But alas if we look into the Speech made at the opening of the Parliament we shall find no mention of any new Ally except the Spaniard whose Affairs at that time through the defects of their own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers were reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a burthen to us but there was little to be hoped from a Friendship with him unless by the name of a League to recommend our Ministers to a New Parliament and cozen Country Gentlemen of their Money Before I can answer this I ought to Transcribe so much of his Majesties Speech as concerns this business which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen The several Prorogations I have made have been very advantageous to our Neighbours and very useful to me for I have employed that time in making and perfecting an Alliance with the Crown of Spain suitable to that which I had before with the States of the United Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual obligations of Succour and Defence I have all the reason in the world to believe that what was so much desired by former Parliaments must needs be very grateful to you now For tho some perhaps may wish these Measures had been taken sooner yet no man can with reason think it is now too late for they who desire to make these Alliances and they who desire to break them shew themselves of another opinion And as these are the best Measures that could be taken for the safety of England and repose of Christendom so they cannot fail to attain their End and to spread and improve themselves further if our Divisions at home do not render our Friendship less considerable abroad Now all the Gentlemans Craft lay in the word New there is no mention of any New Ally No but there is mention of an old one double Confederated both with Spain and England to the same purpose and these three States being thus United as his Majesty truly tells them would in a little time draw in more if our Divisions did not prevent it Our Divisions had that effect and made the King a true Prophet against his will and now all the blame is to be thrown upon the Ministers that is in reality upon the King Nay our Ministers poor unfortunate men must bear the reproach of Ruining not only England but Spain too by their Treachery but yet our kind Author doth not lay all that burthen upon their shoulders but confesseth that their ill Governing had a part in it but however it came to pass Spain was in so desperate a state then that it might be a burthen to England but no ways beneficial And yet before the end of this very Paragraph he is in a dreadful fear that Spain should joyn with his Majesties Successor and for the introduction of Popery make a War upon the People with all his Forces by Sea and Land At this rambling rate does our Gentleman talk It cannot be denied but that the Affairs of Spain were very ill managed at that time but then that was owing to the Minority of their King the Factions in their Court the Contests betwixt Don John and the Queen-Mother their Regent and their two Parties and it is not improbable the French King might have some few Pensioners in Spain as well as England but yet that once most potent Kingdom was not sunk to so low an Ebb of Fortune as to be only a burthen to its Allies tho it had need of them and ought by all the rules of Policy to have been so much the more carefully secured and supported by them especially by England And therefore our Country Gentlemen who were too wise to be cozened of their money by the crafty Ministers will I hope not lay it to their charge too that the Affairs of Spain have ever since visibly declined and the French King hath taken near as much from his Neighbours during the Peace upon pretence of Dependencies by Process as he got in all the War by his Sword and potent Armies For this seems in great part at least not so much owing to the Treachery of our Ministers as to the Tenacity and thriftiness of these Country Gentlemen that were so shie of being cozened of their Money But upon the perusal of the League it appears by the 3 4 and 5. Articles that it was like to create us troubles enough for it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the quarrels of the Spaniards tho they hapned in the West Indies or the Philippine Islands or were drawn upon himself by his own injustice or causeless provocations Whether my Author have been any more faithful in his account of this League than