Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	france_n	king_n	lewis_n	3,219	5	10.3262	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87340	An impartial character of that famous polititian and late admired minister of state, Cardinal Mazarine		1661 (1661)	Wing I81; Thomason E1085_4; ESTC R208051	6,870	12

Coadjutor or Deputy to the Florentine Nuncio and after some time of experience under him used rather as a Spye upon him then associate to him his Letters continually informing his master Cardinal Barberino of the Legates transactions whereby he not onely had the opportunity to give proofe of the abilities of his pen but likewise to improve that knowledge he had already attained For there is nothing more enlightens any man whether imployed in Merchandize or State-Affairs then the having the happinesse of a good and able Correspondent for his Epistles are like so many flowers out of which we may suck honey to return in answer whilst our knowledge of his abilities makes us endeavour to retort the purest and clearest But the Abilities of our Politicians pen was not the only thing that made him so much respected his Carriage on both sides made him more deservedly be wondered at for though he was placed as a soe over the Florentine Nuntio yet he comported himself with that Strange Kind of affection towards him that he rather deemed him his bosome friend whilst yet he let nothing either in favour or prejudice of him passe with which he acquainted not his Master Barbarino And indeed it was now his time to play his Cards well or throw up the Game for should he have been at first discovered to have been but a weak Gamester 't is ten to one whether any more Stakes would have been ventured on his head whilst managing his prime imployments wel he madeway to himself for those greater and more glorious that attended him For not long was it e're the Florentine Nuntio dying 't was no difficult thing for his Master Cardinal Barbarino to procure his holinesse the Pope to declare Mazarin Nuntio which he did so that from Coadjutor to a Legat he became to be an absolute Legatt and from being Substitute to others to steer himself no small Helm in the management of State affairs but such was the Excellency of his knowledge Industry and Ingenuity that in the transacting of these affairs he came off with greater honour and applause then ever For he continually made that his care which should be the duty of every Legatt or Embassadour to wit that the sole aim of his actions should be to benefit those that imployed him nor would he only take occasions to do it when they were proffered but from the Abysse of his politick judgment would fetch up occasions to serve them These prudent managements of businesse in this small State were the motives which made him be called to Rome there to attend som higher Imployment where he for some time waited the pleasure of his holinesse who now undertook no Counsels at least determined on nothing till he made Mazarini privy to it so that he began to shine like a Star in the Popes Court. But at length an Imployment was thought of worthy his great Spirit because none other was thought fit for it but him self The cunning Plots Windings and Artifices of Cardinal Richlieu in France made not onely the Austrian Princes but the Church it self stand in fear whither his designs might tend 'T was therefore thought fit that some person or other should be sent to counter-plot him and if possibly to fathom the bottom of his intentions and this Employment by a general Voice is cast on Mazarine who having a Cap given him by the Pope is sent Being arrived at Paris and setled in his Employment there he first scrues himself into a familiarity with Richlieu that he might have the better opportunity to draw his designs out of him he uses all the artifices that awel experienced Politician or Statesman could imagine to dive into his intentions but finding that the farther he waded the farther he was to seek and that all his endeavours would prove as vain as the fathoming a bottomless sea he thinks to desist farther pursuit yet knows not what to do To have returned to Rome and there given an account of his ill success and inabilities to finish what he had undertaken would for ever have blasted that Honour and Repute he had formerly gotten and that being forgotten he should for ever after live obscure His ambitious thoughts therefore prompt him to a piece of infidelity finding that he cannot thrive and be faithful to Rome he resolves to turn unfaithful that he might still rise higher and therefore instead of searching out the depth of the French Cardinals Councils against the Church he declares to him the depth of the Churches Councils against him I confess this was a piece of infidelity which can no way be justified or excused to betray the secrets of his Embassie to an Enemy and worse of all it was to join with him for Richlieu finding him to be a man of an excellent sagace and subtil understanding in requital of his having betrayed the Popes Counsels to him receives him into his favour makes him his Creature and instills into him all his Plots and Devices so that during his life he was his Coadjutor and after his death his Successor which Place that he hath managed with an unimaginable Discretion Prudence and Policy the Christian World is judge Thus from an obscure Sicilian was our Cardinal advanced by steps and degrees to be the chief Minister of State in France and proved indeed the Support of that Kingdom His first entrance unto this Employment was in the time of Lewis the 13th but during his Reign he was but Coadjutor to Richlieu or at least had but to follow his steps who from a weak and Imbecil Prince had made that King the fear of Christendom But after the death of Richlieu and Lewis he was chief of Council to the Queen Regent who being a Woman of a deep searching had during the life of Richlieu received him into favour as perceiving in how great need she should stand of such a Counsellor at Richlieu's death who was then aged and these were the chief Reasons of her casting so benevolent a countenance upon him rather then that he was received into her bed as many fondly have imagined During the Infancy of the young King Lewis the 14th his Prudence and Policy kept the State Kingdom of France from any considerable disturbances though he had continually the envy of the Princes of the blood who though they could comport Richlieu as being their own Countreyman yet could not endure that a stranger should be advanced to the chief Manage of the State which they thought of right did belong to them as persons upon whom in time the Crown it self might justly descend The chief of his Enemies indeed was the Prince of Conde who left no way unattempted to rid bim out of the way which made many understanding men who lookt upon the inside of things to imagine that if Conde could remove so faithful a Counsellor he would next attempt to thrust the young King out of his Throne But such was the Wisdom and Prudence of our Politick

Cardinal that he not onely frustrated all his designs but at length drave him out of France and made him flye to the Enemies of his Countrey the Spaniards for relief and succour but especially at that time he shewed himself a true Politician when Conde had so much incensed the Princes and People of Paris against him that the King being but now arrived at the age to take the Government of the State into his own hands was with the Cardinal forced to depart from Paris and Arms ready to be raised on both sides the Duke of Lorain who had then an Army standing being called into the assistance of the Princes whom nothing but either the Death or Banishment of the Cardinal could satisfie but Mazarine by his cunning artifices drew Lorain from aiding hem so that the Princes came to an agreement with the King and left Conde to shift for himself This was the grand difference in which his Majesty of England is said to have enterposed and sensible of the miseries he and his Countreys and Kingdoms suffered by a Civil War perswaded them to a Mediation and Reconciliation whereby he is said to have gained to himselfe an odium from both Parties each believing him to be against them but especially the Cardinall is said to have been possessed that he should advise the King of France rather to let him be banished from his Court and Kingdom them hazard the embruing his Countrey in a Civil War from whence so many evils must necessarily ensue which some affirm made him ever after an implacable Enemy to his Majesty of England But indeed I do neither believe him to be his Enemy nor either friend or enemy to any Prince or Country any farther then at it stood with the interest of France whose faithful Minister of State he was and whose interest he pursued according indeed to his duty without respect either to Alliance or Consanguinity That this sufficiently appears by his making Peace and League with that Tyrant Traytor Oliver Cromwel upon connection of banishing all the Royal Progeny of England out of France which though it were an action that sounded with a great deal of dishonor in the ears of all Christian Princes yet was it a League very much for the Interest of France and therefore correspondent to his duty as a Statesman whose care was not to preserve the King of England but the Kingdom of France and by it himself in his Power and Glory And self-preservation we all know to be the first Maxim of Policy And that this League was absolutely beneficial and necessary for France as the state of that Kingdome then stood who can doubt when they consider what Potent Enemies she had then to wage War withall the Spaniards daily and hourly intrenching upon the French Dominions besides a Faction to oppose within it self so that without some assistance she seemed to be in a sinking condition and how by that assistance she again sprung up and shooted out her branches is so lately done that it cannot be forgotten Nor must we account it among the least of his policies that of contracting the Match between the King of France and Infanta of Spain which seems to me just as it were the period of this Labours that as he had maintained that Kingdom flourishing during his whole life-time by his Wisdom and Policy so he would at death leave it in a firm and entire peace and who knows but that he intended by this Peace to have endeavoured had not God restored him by better means before it was perfected the instating of our King into his Crowns and Kingdoms in recompence of those wrongs the Interest of France had before swayed him to Should I enumerate all his Politick transactions I should swell this intended short Character of him into a Volume I shall therefore give an account of his Person and particular Virtues and so conclude He was neither of a tall stature nor very Corpulent of a Mercurial Complexion Sanguine yet somewhat inclining to a melancholly constitution adorned with very handsome features in his face without doubt excellent in his youth yet in his oldest age so clear that a man might guess by them the greatness of his Soul His Carriage and Discourse were generally affable to all yet so extreamly reserved and close in all his designs as was admirable though he would often seem to disclose or discover what he kept most secret A man every way fitted for a Statesman and such a one whose Foxes Tail being pieced to the Lyon-like strength of France might in time had it not been for her Civil and intestine Factions have made her the terror of the World I never could hear that his worst Enemies could ever brand him with ony peculiar Vice Covetous he was not for though he must needs have gotten great sums of money yet he expended so freely and chiefly in Curiosities fetched from Italy my self have seen fiften hundred ancient Roman Statuaes in his Palace at Paris which in all inward glories far exceeded that of the Kings of France He was a Person of whom I cannot believe any other reason for his being made odious but that he exceeded others in Prudence and Policy In sum he was to the Kingdom of France what the Lord H. is to our present Soveraign A faithful Counsellor and prudent Minister of State An Advertisement THere is lately publisht an excellent piece Intituled Modern Policy completed or The Actions and Counsels Civil and Military of his Excellency the Lord General MONCK under all Revolutions since 1640 to 1660 with the Principles moral and Political upon which they were grounded illustred out of the best Masters of Policy Antient and Modern Sold by Henry Marsh at the Princes Arms in Chancery-lane 1661. FINIS