Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n
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A64312
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Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the war begun 1672 to the peace concluded 1679; Selections. 1692
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Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing T642; ESTC R203003
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165,327
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545
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of the Ministers than the Peoples The Dutch believ'd it at first intended only against De Witt 's Faction in favour of the Prince of Orange and in England some laid it to the Corruption of Ministers by the Money of France and some that pretended to think deeper laid it to deeper Designs The Lord Clifford's violence in beginning it gave it an ill air in general and the disuse of Parliaments a cruel maim in the chief sinews of War The Subsidies from France bore no proportion to the charge of our Fleets and our Strength at Sea seem'd rather lessen'd than increas'd by the conjunction of theirs Our Seamen fought without heart and were0 more afraid of their Friends than their Enemies and our Discontents were so great at Land that the Assembling of our Militia to defend our Coasts was thought as dangerous as an Invasion But that which most press'd His Majesty to the thoughts of a Peace was the resolution of Spain to declare the War with England as they had done already with France in favour of Holland unless the Peace were suddenly made which would have been such a blow to our Trade as could not easily have been fenc'd and lost us that of the Mediterranean as the Dutch War had done that of the Northern Seas So as the necessity of this conjuncture was only kept off by the Honour of our Alliance with France However that Crown being not able to furnish Supplies enough to carry on the War without a Parliament could not oppose the calling one upon this occasion When the Parliament met tho' they seem'd willing to give the King Money yet it was to make the Peace with Holland and not to carry on the War And upon His Majesty's demanding their Advice they gave it unanimously That the Peace should be made There were too many Parties engag'd in this Quarrel to think of a General Peace tho' a Treaty to that purpose had been set on foot an Cologn under the Mediation of the Swedes between the Ministers of the Emperor Spain Holland and some Princes of the Empire on the one part and His Majesty and France on the other but without any the least appearance of success For tho' all the Confederates had a mind to the Peace between England and Holland yet none of them desir'd it with France This made both the Dutch and the Spaniards set on foot all the engins they could to engage His Majesty in some Treaty of a separate Peace to which the necessity of His Affairs the humour of his People and the instances of his Parliament at last determin'd him towards the end of the year 1673. Upon the first Meeting of the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham to ingratiate himself with the House of Commons whose ill humour began to appear against those they esteem'd the chief Authors of the War had desir'd leave of that House that he might be heard there in his own defence upon that subject In his Speech among many endeavours to throw the odium of the War from himself upon the Lord Arlington he desir'd that Lord might be ask'd who was the Author of the Triple-Alliance As if he understood himself to be so The Lord Arlington coming afterwards upon the like desire into the same House of Commons and answering some parts of the Duke's Speech when he came to that Particular He told them he could easily answer that Question of the Duke's by telling them That the Author of that Alliance was Sir William Temple This I suppose gave the occasion for Reflections upon what had pass'd in the course of my former Ambassies in Holland and at Aix and His Majesty and his Ministers the resolution to send for me out of my private retreat where I had passed two years as I intended to do the rest of my Life and to engage me in going over into Holland to make the separate Peace with that State Upon the 2d of February 1671 4. His Majesty receiv'd the certain Advice of the States having passed a resolution That the Charges and Dignities possessed by the Prince of Orange and his Ancestors should become Hereditary to his Children And at the same time he also receiv'd a Letter from the States with the desire of Pasports for the Ambassadors whom they were resolv'd to send to His Majesty with Instructions and Powers to treat and conclude a Peace and in the mean time they offer'd a suspension of Arms. This offer coming upon the neck of the Parliaments advice to His Majesty to enter into Treaty with the Spanish Ambassador upon the Propositions he had advanced and which the King had order'd to be sent to the Parliament It was not believ'd by the Ministers that a Treaty could be refus'd without drawing too much odium upon themselves and reflection upon the Government On th' other side it was suspected what Practices might be set on foot by Dutch Ambassadors upon the general discontent reigning against the present War Therefore that very afternoon a resolution was taken at the private Juncto to send rather than to receive an Ambassy upon this subject and that I should be the Person imploy'd Two Gentlemen were sent to my House within half an hour of one another from the Earl of Danby then Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Arlington first Secretary of State to order my attendance upon His Majesty My Lord Arlington told me he would not pretend the merit of having nam'd me upon this occasion nor could he well tell whether the King or Lord Treasurer did it first but that the whole Committee had joyn'd in it and concluded That since the Peace was to be made there was no other Person to be thought of for it And accordingly the King gave me his Commands with many expressions of kindness and confidence to prepare for my Journey and the Secretary to draw up my Instructions I told the King I would obey him and with a great deal of pleasure to see His Majesty returning to the Measures upon which I had formerly serv'd him but that I might do it the better I begg'd of him that I might go over without the Character of Ambassador which would delay or embarras me with preparations of Equipage and with Ceremonies there that were uncessary to so sudden a dispatch His Majesty thought what I said very pertinent and so order'd that I should go only as Plenipotentiary but that I should have in all kinds the appointment of Ambassador and that I should take upon me the Character too when the Peace was concluded Within three days I was ready and the morning my Dispatches were so too the Marquess of Frezno Spanish Ambassador sent my Lord Arlington word while I was with him that he had receiv'd full power from the States to Treat and Conclude a Peace and was ready to enter upon it whenever His Majesty pleased My Lord Arlington surpriz'd was at first of opinion the King should go on his own way and I my Journy and give
That if a King could engage them in his designs he had no more to do for the Peasants having no Land were as insignificant in the Government as the Women and Children are here That on the contrary the great bulk of Land in England lies in the hands of the Yeomanry or lower Gentry and their hearts are high by ease and plenty as those of the French Peasantry are wholly dispirited by labour and want That the Kings of France are very great in possessions of Lands and in dependances by such vast numbers of Offices both Military and Civil as well as Ecclesiastical whereas those of England having few Offices to bestow having parted with their Lands their Court of Wards and Knights Service have no means to raise or keep Armies on foot but by supplies from their Parliaments nor Revenues to maintain any foreign War by other ways That if they had an Army on Foot yet if compos'd of English they would never serve ends that the People hated and fear'd That the Roman Catholicks in England were not the hundredth part of the Nation and in Scotland not the two hundredth and it seem'd against all common sense to think by one part to govern Ninety nine that were of contrary minds and humours That for foreign Troops if they were few they would signifie nothing but to raise hatred and discontent and how to raise to bring over at once and to maintain many was very hard to imagin That the Force seeming necessary to subdue the Liberties and Spirits of this Nation could not be esteem'd less than an Army of Threescore thousand men since the Romans were forced to keep Twelve Legions to that purpose the Norman to institute Sixty two thousand Knights Fees and Cromwell left an Army of near Eighty thousand men That I never knew but one Foreigner that understood England well which was Gourville whom I knew the King esteem'd the soundest Head of any Frenchman he had ever seen That when I was at Brussels in the first Dutch War and he heard the Parliament grew weary of it he said The King had nothing to do but to make the Peace That he had been long enough in England seen enough of our Court and People Parliaments to conclude Qu'un Roy d' Angleterre qui veut estree l'homme de son peuple est le plus grand Roy du monde mais s'il veut estre quelque chose d'advantage par Dieu il n'est plus rien The King heard me all very attentively but seem'd a little impatient at first Yet at last he said I had reason in all and so had Gourville and laying his hand upon mine he added Et je veux estre l'homme de mon peuple My Ambassy extraordinary to Holland was declar'd in May and my Dispatches finish'd at the Treasury as well as the Secretary's Office so as I went away in July My instructions were in general To assure the States of His Majesty's Friendship and firm Resolution to observe his Treaties with them then to offer his Mediation in the present War which both They and almost all Christendom were engag'd in and after their acceptance of it to endeavour it likewise with all their Allies and to that end to engage the Offices and Intervention of the States But immediately after my arrival at the Hague to repair to the Prince of Orange give him part of His Majesties Intentions in all this Affair and assurance of his kindness and engage His Highness as far as could be to second His Majesty's desires in promoting a General Peace wherein the Vnited Provinces seem'd to have the greatest Interest After my arrival at the Hague in July 1674. and a deliveâ—y of my Credentials to the President of the Week and a Visit to the Pensioner wherein I discover'd a strong inclination in the States to a Peace as far as their Honour and Engagâ—ments to their Allies would allow them and was assur'd of the States accepting His Majesty's Mediation I went away to Antwerp in hopes to have found the Prince at his Camp there between Antwerp and Lovain where he had lain some time attending the Advance of the Confederate Troops with whom he had concerted to joyn his Army upon their arrival in Flanders But two days before I came to Antwerp the Army was march'd beyond Lovain so as I was forc'd to go to Brussels and there desire a Guard to convey me to the Camp The Punctilio's of my Character would not suffer me to see the Count Montery tho I had for some Years liv'd at Brussels in particular Friendship and Conversation with him Few Strangers had perhaps ever been better us'd than I during three years Residence at Brussels by all Persons of Quality and indeed of all Ranks there so that it was very surprizing to me to meet such a dry and cold Treatment from the Governor and such an Affectation of the Persons of Quality not so much as to visit me for I do not remember one that did it besides Count d' Egmont who was then not very well at Court either in Spain or Flanders Others true I met in the Streets or the Park though they came with open arms to embrace me yet never came at me but contented themselves with saying They intended it When I sent my Secretary to the Count Montery with my Compliments and Desires of a Guard to the Prince of Orange who was then not above six Leagues off he return'd the first very coldly and the other with Excuses that amounted to a Refusal he said The Way was so dangerous by stragling Parties of the Army that he could not advise me to venture with a small Guard and he had drawn out so many of the Spanish Troops into the Field that he could not give me a great one I sent again to desire what he could spare me let the number be what it would for though I would not expose the King's Character nor his Business by any Accident I might prevent yet when I had endeavour'd it by my Application to his Excellence I would take my fortune tho he sent me but six of his Guards He replied That he could not possibly spare any of them but that next morning he expected a Troop of Horse to come into Town and that as soon as it arriv'd the Captain should have order to attend me Next morning was put off till night and night to the morning following when the Count finding I was resolv'd to go though without Convoy rather than to expect longer sent me a Spanish Captain with about Forty Horse to convey me to Lovain The truth was that the Spaniards were grown so jealous of His Majesty's Mediation offer'd at the Hague of the States and Peoples violent humour to a Peace in Holland and of the Offices they thought I might use to slacken the Prince of Orange in the vigorous Prosecution of their present Hopes and Designs that I found it was resolv'd to