Faction in Parliament which very much alarm'd the King and his Court insomuch that he conceived it was high time to rip open this Evil by discovering seizing and accusing some of the aforementioned Heads of the Faction viz. a Lord and Five Members of the House of Commons The Articles of the Charge against them were in number Seven One of which was That They had traiterously invited and encouraged a Foreign Power to Invade his Majesties Kingdom of England Which was so true that he desired a Tryal of them but their Party in the House not daring to permit it to be put to Proof they shock'd the King in the Business and so the Affair of the COVENANT and the other Effects of that Invitation ran the more roundly on to a ripeness and final Dispatch in Scotland by the time that the Sun in its course brought on the year 1643. And then came on a Second Invasion of England flourishing their Colours with this Rebellious Motto FOR THE CROWN AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS And thus you see how far we were beholden to France for all the Miseries of the ensuing Wars and the numerous Brood of Factions which issued thence in England Scotland and Ireland Of the certain Truth whereof we might have had undeniable Evidence upon the Tryal of those whom the King had then charged with Treason if the Temper of that time would have permitted a fair prosecution however it was I remember sufficiently talk't of in those days and I have now by me a Book in the French Tongue which was printed 24 Years ago by Adrian Vlac at the Hague in Holland in the third part whereof are eight Chapters and over the second Chapter is this Title Le Cardinal de Richelieu la cause des Desordres arrivez en Angleterre That is to say Cardinal Richelieu the cause of the Disorders befallen England Which he brought in as I told you by the way of Scotland to the ruin of our Peace the Royal Family the Church and the whole State and Government of our Kingdom But this tampering with and corrupting other Prince's Subjects is an old Game that the French Ministers have ever been playing all over Europ Let it be remember'd how the same Richelieu wrought the Revolt of Portugal from the Spaniard and the Rebellion in Catalonia and carry'd on the Wars in both those Countries to bring down the Power of Spain how he tamper'd also with the Swede under Gustavus Adolphus to invade the Empire and then with the Emperour's General Wallestein to betray the Imperial Army by whose suddain death the French King lost the great opportunity to work himself into a possession of the Imperial Throne How Cardinal Mazarin after him carried on the Popular Commotions raised by Masaniello in the Kingdom of Naples by sending thither the Duke of Guise to be their Head to the almost wresting of that Kingdom out of the Hand of the Spaniard and then also how he lurch't that Duke and deserted him Moreover how the last Year the French Intrigues so far prevailed in Spain as to turn the Queen-Mother out of her Regency drive out her Favourites such as she thought most fit and firm for the young King's Safety to put him into other Hands and turn all things in that Court topsie-turvy that being agitated and held in play by their own divisions at Home they might be less able to have regard to the preservation of the Flemings or to the carrying on a Joynt-war with the Hollanders How they have been the common Enemies of every State destroying the Peace of Government every where sowing of Factions in all Princely Courts their Councils or among such of the Subjects as are factious or else they jumble one Prince against another by turns as they did the Prince Elector Palatine against the Elector of Mentz starting up an occasion of Quarrel betwixt them one while to take part with the Elector Palatine against Mentz another while with Mentz against the Prince whose Country they miserably harassed and wasted It cannot be forgotten what they lately did to corrupt the Emperor's Council by means of his own Favourite Prince Lobcowitz whom they bought for Mony to betray his Master's Counsels and Affairs besides their Intrigue in the same manner with the Prince of Furstenberg and his Brother Also what they did in the Vnited Provinces to incommode his Highness the Prince of Orange by bolstering up the De Wits and their Louvenstein Republican party against the Princely What they have done to clog the Emperor by fostering a Rebellion against him in Hungary and how great charge they are at to sever the power of the Duke of Bavaria and of the Duke of Hanover from the common Interest of the Empire in this War How they have diverse times indangered all Christendom by confederating with the Grand Seignior to disturb both Hungary and Poland for which cause as My Lord Herbert writes in his History the Pope had like to have given away the Title Most Christian from their French King Francis the First to bestow it upon our Henry the Eighth before he had been dubb'd by his Holiness with that of Defensor Fidei What Artifices have been used by them to settle and nourish perpetual Faction among the Polish Nobility whereby other great Opportunities have diverse times been given the Turk to fall upon them In a word their common practice hath been to give the World all manner of disturbance and so to render themselves in its Opinion the common Enemies of its Peace a publick Pest among States and Princes in every Country they either find combustible stuff or else make it and then set fire to it they are at a mighty charge to find Fodder for the various Animals of Faction in all Places By this means Divide Impera makes way for them and thus they conquer more than by their Arms they inflame Countries thus as well as burn them as they did Alsatia that having enough to do to quench fires at Home they may have neither leisure nor power to hinder French Projects abroad Questionless then since we in England have seen and do see our Neighbours Houses fired one after another 't is high time to look to our own and secure our selves and all Europ from such Boutefeus and the sad Effects of their Impious Courses SECTION IV. That as the French have dealt falsly with us and all other Princes in the point of Peace There is no Security to be had for any one Party but by a Joynt War HIs Majesty of England having hitherto on his part preserved a fair Respect and Amity towards France passing by the many Indignities and Injuries done to himself and his Nation in hope his Patience might by fair means have prevail'd with the French King at length to do reason to us and the rest of his Neighbours and that to that end his Majesty might have perswaded him to have forborn a further prosecution of the War in
Christianissimus Christianandus OR REASON FOR THE REDUCTION OF FRANCE To a More Christian State IN EUROP Odimus Accipitrem quia semper vivit in Armis LONDON Printed by Henry Hills and are to be sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1678. Christianissimus Christianandus OR Reason for the Reduction of FRANCE to a more Christian State in EUROP Section I. Being an INTRODVCTION CErtainly 't is high time to think of making the Ministers of France better Christians when 't is apparent they have taken up the Principle of the Common Enemy of Christendom and make his Maximes the Rules and the Measure of their Proceedings Absolute Power at Home and Vniversal Empire abroad is their Aim as well as the Turks and seeing that by their Actions all the Duties of Christianity are laid in the dirt it were hard to determine under which of the Two Christendom would obtain Fairest Quarter after an absolute Conquest For though France be Owner of the better Faith yet the other keep Faith better because all Travellers tell us the Turk counts it Religion to keep Word and Promise But it seems France may do any thing Regnande causâ as we shall shew by and by when we come to tell how little value is made of Promises Obligations Alliances and the Sacraments In these things they exceed the Grand Seignior but in matter and extent of absolute Dominion they are his Rivals and aspiring to forestal him in his design upon Europ to become sole Masters of a Western as he is of the Eastern Empire And why not Why should not Louis the 14th have it now as his Predecessor Charlemain had it heretofore His great Ministers and Officers both Civil and Military say They have ample Territories and very populous and a most numerous Nobility and Gentry as much Courage as their Ancestors together with the advantage of being trained up either to Actions of War or Warlike Exercises also the Situation of their Country and the Opportunity they have by it to invade their Neighbours upon all Occasions the Fruitfulness and Riches of the Soil the prodigious quantity of all sorts of Commodities Manufactures and other wayes with which they supply neighbouring Countries And lastly the vast Revenues of their Kings who governing of late without check or controul at home are thereby the more able to oppress other States or Princes They boast how Charles the Eighth frighted all other Potentates by the surprising Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples How they contended with the Austrian Family when it had been rais'd on a suddain to a wondrous Grandeur by the accession of innumerable Provinces united in the person of Charles the Fifth and that their King Francis the First had like to have carried from him the Imperial Crown having to that end engaged several of the Electors but they forget to tell us that when he had miss'd it then to be revenged on the Emperor and the other Christian Princes he was the first that taught the French Kings the most Christian trick of making Leagues with the Turks for so did he with the Great Solyman the Magnificent as you may read in my Lord Herbert's History of our Henry the Eighth and God prosper'd him accordingly for though he had several times the Turks assistance to carry on his Reverigeful Designs to the hazard of all Christendom yet at last he was forc't to yield to the victorious Arms of that Emperor Charles who took him Prisoner and made him buy his Peace at an extraordinary Rate But yet his Son Henry the Second had better success and would have extended his Dominions very far had he not been prevented by a suddain unfortunate Death as did also his Successor Henry the Third Then came on his Successor Henry the Fourth and of him they boast that he subdued Monsters of Factions at home and afterwards revived that Monstrous Design of grasping all abroad that having made good his Title to the Crown by the Success of his Arms he bent all his thoughts upon a Project vast in the extent of it as extraordinary in the Nature of it intending no less than to cast Europ into a new Model and reduce all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths that were in his time to a certain number and to bring them into such bounds as he should think fit to prescribe to them but to reserve to himself a Portion so considerable as to have enabled him or at least his Successors to grow up into that state of Universal Monarch which had been first imagined by his Predecessor Francis To this effect he had made choice of his Generals and other great Officers furnished his Arcenals with mighty Stores of Arms and collected prodigious Sums of Money into his Treasury and then all came to nothing by a suddain unexpected stroke which was given him by the Hand of Ravalliac After him his Son Lewis the 13th Father of the present King though by reason of some Domestick broyls and Civil Wars he was not at leisure to carry on the Project of his Predecessors by employing that way the great Armory and Wealth which his Father had provided yet still he had an Eye towards it and Cardinal Richelieu with the rest of his Ministers finding that the House of Austria was very near bringing all Germany under their subjection and after the Battle of Prague stood fair to carry away Vniversal Empire the Darling of France they hasten'd with what speed they could to put an end to Civil Dissentions and having got quiet at Home they being then courted by diverse Princes for Assistance and Protection against the Austrian Family were glad of the Opportunity reckoning that under a shew of assisting weak Princes they might at length take occasion to share with them in their Principalities and by that means vastly increase their own Power And so they did subdue new Provinces and considerable Towns in Spain Italy Germany and the Low-Countreys which at last made the Princes as jealous almost of him as they had been before of the Austrian So that to prevent farther mischief they were content to sit down with their losses rather than trust their French Alliances any longer Which occasioned that great Treaty held at Munster which ended in a general Peace An. 1648. Now before I proceed give me leave by the way to make use of what is past in these few Observations viz. First That had not France had a marvellous Wit Courage and Fortune it could never have born its Head above water in the midst of so many Waves and Tempests of Discord and Rebellion as were rais'd during the Reigns of those Kings and yet continue still in a Condition after all to maintain it self and bid fair also against its Austrian Rival for the Mastery of a General Dominion Secondly That in all Ages as soon as their Intestine troubles have been over they have still out of a restless warlike Humour endeavour'd to incroach upon their Neighbours and for
matter with France it brought on another Treaty which was held at Aken i. e. Aix la Chapelle to make a New Agreement betwixt France and Spain about the Observation whereof we have afforded us another Instance of the French Fidelity Unto this Treaty all the Princes of Christendom were invited to take care of the common Security and his Majesty of England among the rest who sent also a Minister to the Protestant Princes of Germany to invite them into the Guaranty of the said Treaty of Aix Proposals also were made to the Duke of Lorain and several other Princes to come into the League then to be made to which the Lorainer immediately accorded hoping that by this Treaty he might have better luck with the French than he formerly had with them by the Pyrenean Treaty But before we proceed it will not be amiss to remember you How the French kept Faith with this poor Prince whose Interests had been provided for by the said Treaty as well as those of Spain and his Dutchy to be restored to him with all the Places and Towns which he had been possessed of within the Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun But see how France dealt with him They deferr'd as long as they could the performance of that part which related to the said Duke and refused still to return him his Country till they had brought him to make another Treaty with them in prejudice of the former whereby he was forced to part with several considerable Places over and above what had been granted to them by the General Peace And yet this would not serve their turn For after the oppressed Duke had enjoy'd a Year and a half but a very unsettled possession during which under several artificial unjust pretences new Quarrels were pick't every day they with a considerable Army constrained him to give them his Town of Marsal Moreover it was but a little time after this that they fell to teazing him again compelling him to sign a New Treaty more disadvantageous to him than the two former and yet so insatiable is their Appetite after Dominion the unhappy Duke could as little as before obtain a quiet enjoyment of that little they had left him They every day encroached upon his Jurisdiction the limits of his Territories and his Soveraignty it self They imposed grievous Taxes upon his Subjects They caused him to disband his Forces and to raise new Men again as they thought fit They kept him from revenging his own Quarrels to take part in others They let loose all his Enemies against him and stopped the progress of his Armies as soon as he had got the least Advantage And in few words he was at that time more a Vassal to France than a Soveraign in his own Country But yet all this would not satisfie the French Court they must have all again wherefore the Duke by many Circumstances shewing how ill he brook't this kind of unreasonable usage They ordered one of their Generals to surprise and seize his Person and to bring him either dead or alive Of which intended violence having had timely notice he escaped when it was very near being effected Which as one very well observed is a new way of dealing with a Soveraign Prince not known before in these parts of the World and it may teach all other Princes what to trust to in treating and what to expect from such monstrous Neighbours And it gives us some hope that we may e're long live to see the West govern'd by Bashaws as well as the East No other thing could give us a better In-sight into the Ambition and Pride nor more fully discover the Intent and Design of France None but an Universal Monarch can pretend to an Arbitrary displacing of Princes and a disposing of their Liberty Lives and Territories ........... Thus you see how persidiously they dealt with the Duke of Lorain But to return to the Treaty of Aix It proved to be of little avail to that Duke For they have since seiz'd his Country again and driven him out to seek his Fortune and this as Men say for no other Reason but because he hoped by this Treaty to have confirmed himself among his Allies in a better State of Security than he had hitherto been And as for the Court of Spain the French also resolved to defeat their Expectation of benefit by this Treaty for contrary to it they presently fell to work First they dismantled all the strong Places and Holds of the Country of Burgundie carried away all the Munitions out of it and would have spoiled the rich Salt-pits of that Province Had not the Powerful interposition both of England and Holland Prevented In despite also of that Treaty they exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limbourg and Luxembourg They laid a new Claim to some Towns as important as any of those that were granted to them by the Peace They confiscated the Estates of the Subjects of the King of Spain that would not forswear their Allegiance and spared not the very Royal House of Mary Mont. Nay as if these Infractions were not enough and still to encroach as far as they were able they forced their way with great quantities of Merchandise through the Spanish Territories without paying the Customs and not long after endeavoured to surprise the Town of Hainault In a word They did whatever they pleas'd plunder'd even the most Sacred Places and acted whatever can be imagined to be done without remorse by insolent and unconscionable men But to proceed it must not be forgotten How under a pretence of advancing the Affairs of Poland and setling an Amity there they contrived a Marriage for that King with a Lady of France by which means they were enabled to send thither along with her in her Train so many expert Instruments of mischief that immediately they settled a Cabal with such Intrigues as in a short time inflamed the Nobility of that Kingdom into heats and Factions against one another which are never likely to be extinguish't and at that time they operated so far that that King soon became willing to quit the Kingdom and thereupon the Turk seeing the great Divisions that were wrought among them was easily invited in by the French Cabal meerly because they could not bring in a King that was of French Blood or of French Interest at the following Election And also to this That one of the greatest Motives of their fetching in the Turk was that their New King contracted Marriage with the Emperour's Sister which Princess being now a Widdow is shortly to be married to the Duke of Lorain It is worth the while also to remember how finely they used the Duke of Newbourg while they trained him on to engage the greatest part of his Estate almost beyond redemption in hopes of getting the Polish Crown which they had promised to procure for him by the help of a strong Party which they had made in that Kingdom Yet under-hand
be able to oppress another And that we ought ever to hold it even betwixt France and the House of Austria and if either of them exceed to reduce it to an Equality this was accounted a principal part of the Ancient Grandeur of the English Nation King Henry the Eighth first well setled it in managing the Differences betwixt Charles the Fifth then both Emperor and King of Spain and Francis the First King of France the two Grand Competitors of that Age. That excellent Princess Queen Elizabeth well improved it and so it continued till the time of Cromwell who first erred in this matter of Publick Interest to serve his own private by greatning of France beyond due proportion so that he interposed the Difficulties which since lay in the way of Reducing it By the Influence of this old piece of policy it was that England was always in a condition whensoever she pleased to dispence Peace or War to every Nation and thereby great Honour redounded to our own throughout the World and there is nothing but War can restore it by curing the overgrown Dropsie of the French Greatness VI. You had before an Intimation of another most considerable Reason drawn from a consideration that no Peace that can be made can give us any security of enjoying it long to which I may add That a Peace will but betray us to the next Opportunity the French shall please to take Besides in the interval we should but give him the opportunity to reinforce himself ramass his Treasury and thereby inable himself to prosecute the old Artifice of corrupting other Princes Ministers Officers and Governors and work his Ends so as to alienate and separate as many of the Consederates as he can from their holding Counsels in common for Mutuall preservation to embrace such terms as he shall under a specious shew of Advantages think fit to propose unto them which if obtained would utterly break them one after another and induce this Inconveniency upon England to be left alone or with but few Participants to joyn in the Work of Reducing France into its former legitimate moderate Condition VII Another Reason is to be derived from a Consideration of the great increase of the Naval Power of France whereby they are enboldened to give disturbance to our Merchant-men in our own Seas such an Indignity to his Majesty and Violation of our Rights by Sea as is not to be indured and which the Kings of this Island have from all Antiquity possessed as far as the very shores of France exclusive of any Pretentions of Right of any other Nations within the FOUR SEAS The Evidences whereof were collected and with Arguments drawn from all sorts of Learning and Records digested into one excellent Book by that most famous Man Mr. Selden entituled MARECLAVSVM Among the particulars whereof I remember that the Addition of the Port-Cullis to the Royal Badges of the Crown of England which is yet to be seen upon many of the Royal Houses built by our Kings was made for this Reason even to signifie to all the World That we had a just Right and Title at pleasure to shut up and open the Sea when we thought fit as it were with a Port-Cullis to all Passengers passing by Sea And by the same Evidences it is there proved that our Title to our Propriety in the Sea is as good as any Title the French King hath to any part of his Dominion by Land His Grand-Father wrote divers Letters with his own Hand to King James which I have formerly seen in the Paper-Office at White-Hall to ask Leave for some few Vessels to fish for Soales as he should have occasion for his own Table Which was a sufficient Acknowledgment where the Soveraignty lies by Sea There have been also in former time brisk Messengers sent to the French Kings requiring them as soon as they had but begun to lay the Carcass of some pitiful Ship upon the Stocks to forbear building Which shews the present Presumption of the French in making so grand Naval Preparations to invade our Seas And our Honour as well as our Right calls aloud for a Vindication VIII There is Reason also to be drawn from a Consideration of the hazard of Religion 1. As concerning the Protestant about which I shall not use any more words to clear this point than this short Proverb now used in France and by them attributed to their own King That his Grand-Father loved the Protestants his Father feared them and he himself hated them Which any one that beholds the Ruines of their demolished Churches and the hard Conditions under which they are oppressed in every point within that Kingdom too large here to recite will easily believe 2. As touching the Roman Catholick Religion how that is like to fare may readily be prognosticated Tros Rutilúsve fuat nullo discrimine habebunt Be a Papist or be a Protestant the French make no difference in usage wheresoever they come Witness to this how they have dealt in Catalonia Alsatia the Spanish Low-Countrys and divers other Roman Catholick Countrys where all men exclaim against the Domination of France 3. Whereas it was of old a Doctrine instilled into the minds of the Romanists by their Father-Confessors that they ought to adhere to Spain and the House of Austria rather than to promote the French Empire because Spain being then much the greater Kingdom and esteemed the dearer Son of the Church by reason of its greater Zeal and more strict and intire Imbracement of the Romish Faith and through the diligence of the Inquisition kept without any mixture of that which they call Heresie and therefore more likely to continue firm to the Roman See now of later time the State of Empire being altered Spain brought much lower and not able to give such Protection and Defence as formerly to the Roman Cause in these parts of the World the Pope and his Priests and Jesuits are so far altered too that having since seen the French go on like Conquerers they have quitted the former Reasons on Spain's side and like the Men of the World are turned Courtiers of Fortune crying up France altogether now though if they please to remember how not many Years ago France upon a petty Quarrel in Rome betwixt some of the Pope's Souldiers and the Duke of Crequi's Servants then Ambassador there ruffled the Pope himself with such unheard of Insolence that for meer fear he was constrained to abandon divers of his Friends and Kindred and to the perpetual disgrace of the Holy-Chair and of their Religion and of the Adored-Father of Christians as they would seem to repute him they made him cry like a Child and erect a Pillar in Rome with an Inscription signifying the pretended Affront to France engraven upon it and it continued some Years standing till the Tears of his Holiness prevailed for the demolishing of it Notwithstanding all this I say the Roman Priests do venture to magnifie France as