produced a Treaty between His Majesty and the Bishop of Munster And this commences the following Letters I beg the Readers Pardon for any Errata's which may be in the Printing occasioned by my Absence THE First Dutch War Begun May 1665. To Sir John Temple Master of the Rolls of Ireland Brussels Sept. 6th 1665. SIR THO' I was forced by the King 's express Command not only to leave you and my Family at very short Warning and in a very melancholy Season but without so much as telling you whither I was sent yet I would not fail making you this amends by giving you an Account of my Journey and Negotiations thus far so soon as I thought it might be fit for me to do it When my Lord Arlington sent for me to Sheen it was to let me know that the King had received an Overture from the Bishop of Munster to enter into an Alliance with his Majesty against the Dutch from whom he pretended many Injuries to bring an Army into the Field and fall upon them by Land while His Majesty continued the War by Sea But at the same time to demand certain Sums of Money that would be necessary to bring him into the Field and to continue the War And that if his Majesty would either treat with the Baron of Wreden who was the Minister he sent over in the greatest Privacy that could be or send a Minister of his own to treat with him he doubted not an easie Agreement upon this Matter but desired it might be with all the Secret imaginable My Lord Arlington told me the main Articles were already agreed on here and the Money adjusted but that it was necessary for the King to send over some Person privately to finish the Treaty at Munster and to see the Payments made at Antwerp where the Bishop seemed to desire them That I must go if I undertook it without Train or Character and pass for a Frenchman or a Spaniard in my Journey and made me the Compliment to say He had been perplexed three or four Days together to think of a Person that was not only capable of the Affair and of the Secret but that was to be trusted with such a Sum of Money But that when he had thought of me and proposed me to the King and to my Lord Chancellor they had both approved it and I must suddenly resolve upon my Answer to the Proposal he mademe but whether I accepted it or no I must keep it secret from my nearest Friends I told him upon the Place I would serve his Majesty the best I could in it tho' being a new Man I could not promise much for my Self that there was only one Point I could by no means digest which was the Business of the Money having ever been averse from charging my self with any bodies but my own This made at first some Difficulty between us but at last his Lordship was content to endeavour the engaging Alderman Backwel who furnisht it to go over himself with it into Flanders and there by my Order to make the Payment to the Bishop's Agent and said he believed at such a time of Infection in London the Alderman might easily take an occasion of such a Journey After my Instructions dispatcht I came away in hast and with the Secret you saw and without more than one Days stop at Brussels went strait with the Baron of Wreden to Coesvelt where the Bishop then was I stay'd there but three Days was brought to him only by Night agreed all Points with him perfected and Signed the Treaty and returned to Antwerp where the Alderman performed his Part in making the first and great Payment to the Bishop's Resident there All this has been performed on all sides with so great Secrecy that the Bishop has not only received his Money but raised his Troops to about Eighteen Thousand Men without the least Umbrage given that I can yet hear of to the Dutch and by all the Assurances I receive from him I conclude that before this Letter comes to your hands he will be in the Field tho' some unexpected Disappointments about a General Officer he reckoned upon has a little discomposed the Measures he had taken and may I doubt not a little maim the Progress of them But that will be governed by Time and Accidents my Business was to bring him into the Field and I have had the Fortune to do it sooner than either they expected at Court or the Bishop had promised upon our Signing of the Treaty He is a Man of Wit and which is more of Sense of great Ambition and properly Un Esprit remnant But the Vigour of his Body does not second that of his Mind being as I guess about six or seven and fifty Years old and pursued with the Gout which he is not like to cure by his manner of Life he was a Soldier in his Youth and seems in his Naturals rather made for the Sword than the Cross he has a mortal Hatred to the Dutch for their supporting his City of Munster against him and is bridling those Citizens by a very strong Cittadel he is building there He seems bold and resolute and like to go through with what he has undertaken or break his Head in the Attempt and says he will perform all he has engaged Fide sincerâ Germanicâ which is a Word he affects He speaks the only good Latin that I have yet met with in Germany and more like a Man of Court and Business than a Scholar He says if he fails in his Enterprize and should lose his Country he shall esteem his Condition not at all the worse for in that Case he will go into Italy and has Money enough in the Bank of Venice to buy a Cardinal's Cap which may become him better than his General 's Staff tho he has a Mind to try this first and make some Noise in the World before he retires This is the best Character I can give of the Bishop and for my Self I can say nothing but what you know finding no Change at all by this Sally into a new Scene of Life and Business as well as Climate my Health I thank God the same my Kindness so too to my Friends and to Home only my Concernment for them in this miserable Time among them much greater while I am here than when I was with them which makes me very impatient after every Post that comes in and yet very apprehensive of every Letter I open The Length of this I doubt is too much for once and therefore shall end with the Assurances of my being SIR Your most Obedient Son and humble Servant W. Temple To Alderman Backwell Brussels October 9th 1665 Mr. Alderman I Am very much in pain to find at Monsieur Rhintorf's Return that he has made no Progress in his Affairs which are ours too during the stay he has lately made at Antwerp But I am very much surprised to hear that I
confident five and twenty or thirty Thousand Pounds in a Lump and sudden would bring him strong and vigorous into the Field this Spring which would prove a cheap Advantage to His Majesty's Arms and perhaps the greatest in Sight next to your Grace's commanding this Summer's Fleet from which we all here certainly reckon upon a Success suitable to the rest of your Fortunes and Glories which I hope to see compleated upon the French Fleets Mine will be great if your Grace pleases to esteem me as you will ever have Reason to do My Lord Your Graces most faithful humble Servant To my Lord Carlingford Brussels Mar. 6. N. S. 1666. My Lord I Have this Exception to your Service that my Faults are taken notice of and not my Diligence for in your Lordship 's of the 21st past I find not the least Mention of any Letters received from me tho' I am confident by other Circumstances some of them must have been come to your Hands I fear your News at Vienna is not so good nor true as your Wine and by the Abundance of Reports with shallow Grounds I doubt your Court is rather inclined to hear News than to make it That Brandenburg is our Enemy at least for four Months is too certain that Sueden is a Friend to Munster we may guess rather from Causes than any Effects that I know of and since neither the Emperor nor Spain will contribute any Thing towards the Bishop's Assistance nor so much as the staving off Enemies that by Dutch and French are raising up against him in the Empire it self I know no Remedy But yet in spight of all Force and Artifice to disarm him I expect for my Part to see him rather besieged in Cosvelt or Munster than make a Peace without our Master's Consent as is hoped by our Enemies and perhaps wished by some of our Friends for fear the Continuance of his Musick should make them dance before they have a Mind to it But I believe all their Coldness and Shrinking will hardly defend them and may help them rather to lose their Friends than gain their Enemies For we have certain News that the French have made a Place d'Armes between la Fere and Peronne where that King is coming down to the Rendevouses of Fifteen Thousand Men and the Hollanders on the other side are so incurably possest with an Opinion of some wonderful deep important League between us and Spain that they are upon the very Brink of resolving a War too and concluding a League Offensive as well as Defensive with France at least if the Ascendant of this Year be favourable to De Witt 's Party as that of the last was which begins to be a little doubted of late I will not send your Lordship any English Letters nor our Declaration of War against the French in Confidence it goes along with your Pacquet by which you will see His Majesty hath been as generous and civil as the French King was rough in his to call it no worse but he hath begun the War with so much Heat that I am apt to believe he will come to be cool before it ends I shall ill deserve your Lordship's Leave of writing often if I do it so long and so little to the Purpose together After I have â—â—ld you my Lord Ossory is come 〈◊〉 into England and that my Lord Arlington is for certain as they say both in England and here to marry the Lady Emilia my Lady of Ossory's Sister I will give your Lordship the good Night almost as late as I imagine you use to go to Bed and only tell you that I am at all Hours My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant To Sir Philip Warwick Brussels Mar. 12. N. S. 1666. SIR THough it be more easie and more usual to beg Favours than to acknowledge them yet I find you are resolved to force me upon the last without ever giving me Time of Occasion for the other How much I am obliged to you in my last Dispatch I am told enough by Mr. Godolphin but more by my own Heart which will never suffer me to believe that a Person to whom I have been so long and am so much a Servant should be any other than kind to me for that is my way of judging my absent Friends and serves like a Watch in my Pocket to measure the Time tho' I see no Sun The very Name of Time puts me in mind that yours is not to be spent idly and that you are more pleased to oblige your Friends than to receive their Thanks and therefore I will only say that mine are very sensible and very hearty and that no Man is with more Reason and with more Sincereness than I am SIR Your Affectionate humble Servant To the Bishop of Munster Brussels Mar. 19. S. N. 1666. SIR YOUR Highnesse's Letter of the o th instant came in due time to my hands by which I plainly find with how much Faith and Conâ—â—â—â—y as well as Wisdom and Courage your Highness intends to order your Affairs My utmost Endeavours shall not be wanting for the advancing of them as well as for encreasing and cultivating the Confidence His Majesty hath in your Highness on which the common League chiefly relies especially at this time when so many ill designing Men use all Endeavours to shake or destroy it wherein it is hard to tell whether their Folly or Malice be greater I hear every day in this City that you Highness has made Peace with thâ— Hollanders without any Regard to us or our League or so much as consulting His Majesty upon it And I pretend to believe what I 〈◊〉 toâ—â— tho' I am inwardly assured to the contrary As for Whispers and Rumours it is not my Custom either to amuse others with them or perplex my self I confess I was somewhat moved with a Letter from the Duke of Brunswick to a Man of Understanding in this City which I lately saw and read wherein he seems to feed himself and his Friend with hopes of a speedy Peace in all those Parts of Germany and assures him from his certain knowledge that the Prince of Munster will accept it in case it be offered to him without the greatest Ignominy and Loss wherein he says the neighbour Princes use all means to engage him I am sorry to find the Marques Castel Rodrigo of the same Opinion because I know the Event must be dishonourable to your Highness and will be imputed to the King my Master perhaps as Imprudence at least as ill Fortune Nor do I think the Spaniards at this time of day so generous as to promote the League which we hope to see confirmed by my Lord Sandwich's Embassy into Spain if they once imagine tho' but falsly that His Majesty among such potent Enemies is forsaken by his nearest Confederates On the contrary I am entirely persuaded as well from your Highness's last Letter as from your Virtue and good Sense that
some of the small Towns to prevent and ruine a Council of the greatest Importance to Christendom as well as to our two Nations that had been on Foot in many Ages That unless the States General would conclude and sign the Treaty immediately and trust to the Approbation of their several Provinces and Towns after it was done I should give it for gone and think no more of it Monsieur de Witt seemed to think this impossible said no such Thing had ever been done since the first Institution of their Commonwealth that tho' it was true the States General might sign a Treaty yet they could not Ratifie it without Recourse to their Principals and that they should venture their Heads in Signing it if their Principals not approving it should question them for doing it without Orders that he hoped the Forms might be expedited in three Weeks Time and that all Care that could be should be taken to prevent the Addresses of the French Ambassadour among the Provinces I cut the Matter short and told him I continued of my first Opinion to see it immediately agreed between Me and the Commissioners and then Signed by the States which might be done in four or five Days and that the Deputies might safely trust to the Approbation of their Principals in a Point of so great and evident publick Interest That for my Part I know not how this Delay and thereby Hazard of the Affair might be interpreted in England nor what Change in my Orders it might produce That I had now Powers to conclude an Alliance of the last Consequence to the Safety of Flanders and this State that if it should miscarry by the too great Caution of the Deputies in Point of Form for ought I knew they might venture their Heads that Way and more deservedly than by signing at present what all of them believed would not only be ratified but applauded by their Principals With this I left him and the rest that passed in the Progress of this Affair as well as in my Audience or with the Commissioners Your Lordship has it in my Dispatch to My Lord Arlington to whom you will please to communicate these more secret Springs that by knowing the Conception the Forming the Throws and Birth of this Child you may the better consult how it is to be nourished till it grow to Strength and thereby fit to atchieve those great Adventures for which it seems designed I am ever with equal Passion and Truth My Lord Your Lordship 's most faithful and most humble Servant To Mr. Godolphin Hague Jan. 28. S. N. 1668. SIR THO' the Interruption of our Commerce hath been long yet I thought it necessary to renew it at this Time and thereby let you know what has lately broken it on my Side that you may not believe any Interruption of yours has had a worse Effect upon me of late than it ever had before being an Accident I have often been subject to About the end of last Month N. S. I passed through this Place with private Commission from His Majesty to sound the Mind of the States in what concerns the present Quarrel between the two Crowns and how they were disposed to join with him in the Share of a War or Project of a Peace to be endeavoured by our joint Offices between them From hence I went to London with the private Account of what I had in Charge After five Days Stay there I was dispatch'd back as His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to the States with full Power to treat and conclude upon those Points which His Majesty esteemed necessary for our common Safety and the Repose of Christendom in this Conjuncture Upon the 6th I arrived here had my first Audience on the 18th and on the 23d were signed by me and the Commissioners given me by the States with full Powers three several Instruments of our present Treaty The first containing a League defensive and perpetual between His Majesty and the States against all Persons without exception that shall invade either of them with Agreement to furnish each other upon Occasion with forty Ships of War of which fourteen betwixt sixty and eighty Guns and four hundred Men a piece one with another Fourteen between forty and sixty Guns and three hundred Men a piece and of the other Twelve none under thirty six Guns and a hundred and fifty Men Besides this with six Thousand Foot and four hundred Horse or Money in stead of them at the Choice of the Invaded and to be repaid within three Years after the End of the War the Proportions of Money to the several Parts of the said Aid being ascertained in the Treaty The second Instrument contains our joint Obligations to dispose France to make Peace in Flanders upon one of the Alternatives already proposed and likewise to dispose Spain to accept it before the End of May but in Case of Difficulty made by them to dispose France however to stop all further Progress of its own Arms there and leave it wholly to the Allies to procure the Ends proposed in this League The third Instrument contains certain separate Articles between His Majesty and the States Signed at the same Time and of the same Force with the Treaty but not to be committed to Letters 'T is hardly imaginable the Joy and Wonder conceived here upon the Conclusion of this Treaty brought to an Issue in five Days nor the Applause given to His Majesty's Resolution as the wisest and happiest that could in this Conjuncture be taken by any Prince both for his own and his Neighbours Affairs nor are the Reflections upon the Conduct of it less to the Advantage of the present Ministry in England the Thing being almost done here assoon as my Journey was known in London and before my Errand was suspected by any publick Minister there Three Days after our signing the Suedish Ambassadour signed another Instrument jointly with me and the States Commissioners obliging his Master to enter as a Principal into the same Alliance so soon as some Pretensions he has from the Emperour and Spain are satisfied by our good Offices between them After which Count Dona parted as Ambassadour likewise from that Crown for England where the rest of that Affair will be negotiated and in his Company my Brother Henry Temple with the Whole Account of my Business and the Treaties signed in Order to their Ratification for which a Month is allowed tho' the States promise theirs within fifteen Days after the Date When those arrive and are exchanged I return to my Residence at Brussels to see the Issue of this Business which now takes up the Thoughts and Discourse of all Christendom and from which most Princes will resolve to take their Measures I suppose My Lord Sandwich upon his Way and therefore content my self only with giving you this Trouble and the Professions of my being SIR Your c. To the KING Hague Jan. 29th S.N. 1668. May it please Your Majesty
to as even than to have had it all omitted I desire Your Lordship to communicate all this to My Lord Arlington and to excuse this Trouble by Reason of His Lordship's Pacquet being already sealed up I am ever c. Proemium Tractatus inter Anglos Hollandos Febr. 13. 1668. QUandoquidem annuente Divinâ Gratiâ conspirante mutuarum rerum salute aequé ac Christiani Orbis jam temporis necessitate Vigesimo tertio Die Januarii proximè elapsi inter Serenissimum conclusum signatum sit Foedus perpetuum defensivum fortissimis utrinque tam mari quam terrâ proestandis auxiliis communitum Eodemque die alioque Instrumento de rerum vicinarum tranquilitate paceque Orbi Christiano restitundâ inter Praedictum pronis animis consultum conventum fuerit adeoque nihil aliud protenus superesse videatur quod tam mutuâ voluntate conflatam amicitiam necessitudinem ullo demùm tempore interpellare poterit praeter controversias de mercimoniorum speciebus hic inde redigendis forsitan orituras ex incertâ vel ambiguâ ejusmodi rerum utrinque adjudicatione forsitan etiam promovendis Quo autem omnibus innotescat quà m sincerâ sanctâque fide Praedictus nuper conflatae amicitiae non modo in praesens sed ad posteros colendae cavere voluerint jamdemum ad divellenda quaecunque non modo dissentionum sed vel altercationum semina praecidendamque penitus eorum Spem aut expectationem quorumcunque demùm praedictam amicitiam novis litibus concussam aut labefactatam iri interesse poterit In subsequentes Articulos utrinque conventum est qui pro normâ Regulâ ejusmodi rerum maritimarum mercaturae hic inde redigendae mutuò perpetuò observabuntur aut quousque saltèm ex utriusque partis Arbitrio Consensu Commissarii indicentur conveniant ad uberiorem iis de rebus omnibus Navigationisque Legibus tractatum communi utrinque commodo ulteriore experientiâ dirigendum Sequuntur Articuli Conclusio CUm autem rerum omnium Conventionum commoda aut Incommoda non nisi tractu temporis mutuaeque experientiae documentis penitùs indagari poterunt Conventum itaque est ut quocunque demùm Tempore utrique Parti id visum fuerit ex communi Confensu indici convenire poterunt utrinque delegati Commissarii quorum curae erit operis quodcunque in supra memoratis Articulis defecisse reperietur supplere quodcunque autem incongruum utrinque incommodum mutare aut circumscribere uberiorem demùm hisce de rebus omnibus Tractatum absolvere prorsus perlimare To the States at first Audience High and Mighty LORDS WHereas His Majesty of Great Britain the King my Master hath already found the good Effects of the late Peace concluded at Breda with Your High and Mighty Lordships by the general Satisfaction of His Majesty's Subjects as well as his own and doubts not but Your Lordships have likewise found the same Effects among your People in general as well as among your selves His Majesty esteems nothing more likely to encrease the mutual Satisfaction nor to assure the Safety of both Nations than an Increase of the Confidence and Friendship already contracted between His Majesty and Your Lordships by a stricter and firmer Alliance at this Time And whereas His Majesty contented with those great and powerful Kingdoms and Dominions which Almighty God has given him by an undisputed Succession covers nothing from his Neighbours nor has other Thoughts or Wishes besides those of the common Peace and Repose of Christendom His Majesty finds himself in this Conjuncture sensibly touched by the Calamities so many others are like to feel from the Continuance of the War lately broken out between the Neighbour Crowns and which in Course of Time cannot but involve most of the Princes and States of Christendom unless the Flame be quenched before it rise too high And His Majesty believes that nothing can so much contribute towards a safe and sudden Composure of that Quarrel nor consequently restore the Peace of Christendom as a joint Mediation of His Majesty with Your H. and M. Lordship's together with each others Allies between the two Crowns now in War Upon these two Considerations His Majesty hath thought fit to send me to Your Lordships with full Powers to treat and conclude upon what shall be found necessary between His Majesty and Your Lordships in the Adjustment of all Matters tending to these great Ends. And since nothing can bring these Negotiations to be of Effect so much as the suddenness of their Conclusion I desire Your Lordship 's to appoint such Commissioners as you shall think fit with whom I may fall upon the Treaty of these Matters and to whom I am ready to expose the full Powers which His Majesty the King my Master has given me upon this Occasion At my Audience of Leave to the States General High and mighty Lords HIs Majesty of Great Britain the King my Master having seen so happily finished and in so few Days three several Treaties with Your High and Mighty Lordships By which the common Security of both Nations is established the Seeds of all new Differences entirely rooted out and the Way laid open to the Peace of Christendome in Case our Neighbours proceed with the same good Faith wherewith we have begun His Majesty thinks he has no further Occasion for my Services here because Ministers are only proper for fastening and cementing a Confidence and Friendship whereas ours is so firmly established as not to require any even the most ordinary Supports For this Reason His Majesty has order'd my Return to Brussels there to pursue in concert with Your Lordships in favour of our Neighbours what we have here concluded for our selves But His Majesty has commanded me upon my Departure to assure Your Lordships from Him that as all things are best preserved by the same Means they are begun so His Majesty will not fail for ever to observe what he has now concluded with the same Faith the same Sincerity and the same open Heart wherewith he gave Command they should be negotiated and His Majesty doubts not at all that Your Lordships are entirely resolved to proceed after the same manner which is the highest Mark of a perfect Confidence to be given at present For my own particular I cannot part from hence without expressing my Satisfaction at the sincere and judicious Proceeding of Your High and Mighty Lordships in the whole course of these Negotiations and particularly at the great Prudence you have shewn in the Choice of those Commissioners you gave me their Candor and Sincerity their great Capacity and Application did contribute very much to the quick and happy Conclusion of our Treaties For my own particular as I shall ever bear in mind with Joy and Pleasure this short space of Time I have pass'd with Your Lordships in whatever Part of the World I may be so
a leur merite a leurs qualitez personnelles M'accorderez vous la liberte de vous prier d'envoyer une copie de cette Lettre aux Ambassadeurs d'Hollande a Londres avec ordre de la faire voir a Milord Arlington car je me defie extremement du courier de Nieuport trop expose a la rencontre des François je ne suis pas encore assez grand Maître dans mon chiffre pour m'en servir dans les affaires d'un aussi long detail Je vous prie de m'aider a me conserver dans le souvenir de mes amis de la Haye de me croire toujours autant que personne du monde Monsieur Vôtre tres humble tres affectionne Serviteur The Memorial given to the Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo Febr. 1668. My Lord THE under-signed Resident of the King of Great Britain and the Deputies Extraordinary of the States General of the Vnited Neitherlands find themselves obliged to represent to your Excellency That his Majesty and their High and Mightinesses having lately concluded a Treaty by which they have not only provided for their proper Security but also for the Peace and Quiet of Christendom in case their Neighbours proceed in it with the same good Intentions wherewith the said Allies have begun this Affair His said Majesty and Their High and Mightinesses for the better perfecting so Christian a Work having given Orders to their Ministers residing at the Courts of both Kings at present in War to endeavour by all means and by a common Concert to dispose both the said Kings to accept the means proposed by the said Allies as the readiest and most necessary for arriving at so happy an End that is to say to accept the Peace upon the Alternative already proposed And to prevent the Accidents that may intervene to hinder the Progress of the Treaty to consent also immediately to a Truce 'till the end of March and in the mean while to send their Plenipotentiaries to Aix la Chapelle furnish'd with Instructions and Powers necessary to treat and conclude a Peace upon the said Alternative that the Fire at present kindled and whereof in all appearance the Sparks are ready to fly through the greatest Part of Christendom may be soon extinguished and give place to a general and lasting Peace to the safety of all those who find themselves engaged in the sad Effects or Consequences of the present War The said Resident and Deputies extraordinary are more particularly obliged by the Orders of their Masters to represent to your Excellency how glorious it will be to you how advantageous to the common Ends of the Peace and how necessary for preserving to Spain the remainder of Flanders that your Excellency by virtue of your Powers would make the first Step in this great Affair by consenting readily to the said Alternative and to the said Truce and to the dispatching of the said Plenipotentiaries to Aix la Chapelle and for the better entring into this Negotiation and the said Truce That your Excellency will declare immediately your Acceptation of the Truce which the most Christian King has proposed from the 18th of November to the last of March 1668. And upon all these Points the said Resident and Deputies extraordinary do pray your Excellency with all possible Instances to give them a speedy and plain Answer agreeable to the good and holy Dispositions wherewith his Majesty and Their High and Mightinesses have begun and pursued this glorious and Christian Design of a general Peace Memoire au Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo Anvers Fevr. 1668. Monsieur LES sous-signez Resident de la Grande Bretagne les Deputez extraordinaires des Etats Generaux de Provinces Vnies de Pâ—ï bas se trouvent obligez de representer à V. E que sa Majesté leurs Hautes Puissances ayans depuis peu conclus un traité par lequel ils n'ont pas â—eulement pourvû a leur propre seureté mais aussi á la paix repos de la Chretiente en cas que leurs voisins y procedent avec les memes bonnes intentions dont les dits Alliez on t entame cette affaire sa dite Majeste leurs Hautes Puissances pour mieux acheminer un ouvrage si Chretien ont donné ordres à leurs Ministres auprés de deux Couronnes à present en guerre de tacher par tous moyens par un Concert commun de disposer les dites deux Couronnes à accepter les moyens proposez par les dits Alliez comme les plus prompts les plus necessaires pour arriver à une fin si heureuse c'est à dire de consentir à la paix sur l'Alternative deja proposée pour prevenir les accidens qui pourront survenir pour empecher le progrez d'un traité de consentir aussi promptement à une treve jusqu'é la fin du mois de Mars en attendant d'envoyer leurs Plenipotentiaires à la Ville d'Aix la Chapelle munis des Instructions de pouvoirs requis pour y traiter conclurre la Paix sur la dite Alternative afin que le feu qui se voit à present allumé duquel les estincelles se vont en apparence jetter dans la plus grande part de la Chretiente se puisse bientôt etouffer faire place a une paix generale durable salutaire a tous ceux qui se trouvent enveloppes ou dans les effets ou dans les consequences funestes de la guerre presente Les dits Resident les Deputez Extraordinaires se trouvent plus particulierement obliges par les ordres de leurs Maitres de representer a V. E. combien il luy sera glorieux avantaguex a la fin commune de la paix necessaire a la conservation de ce qui reste a l' Espagne dans les Pais bas que V. E. en vertu de ses pouvoirs fasse le premier pas dans cette grande affaire en consentant promptement a la dite l'Alternative a la dite Treve a la depeche des dits Plenipotentiaires a la Ville d'Aix la Chapelle Et aussi pour mieux acheminer cette Negotiatiation la dite Treve que V.E. se declare promptement d'accepter la treve que sa Majeste Tres Chretienne a proposee le 18 de Novembre 1667 jusqu'au dernier jour de Mars 1668. Et sur tous ces points les dits Resident les Deputez Extraordinaires se trouvent obliges de prier V. E. avec toutes les instances possibles de leur donner une reponse prompte nette agreable aux bonnes saintes dispositions avec lesquelles sa Majeste leurs Hautes Puissances on t entame poursuivi ce dessein glorieux Chretien de la Paix commune To my Lord Hallifax Brussels March 2. S. N. 1668. My Lord IT would
la veue de me cosoler avec vous je ne veux point la finir en y mêlant quelque chose qui soit etranger á votre douleur Je ne vous parleray donc point d'affaires et je vous diray seulement que le Roy mon Maitre me presse tous les jours sur les preparatifs de mon depart je n'y apporteray d'autres retardements que ceux que mes affaires domestiques rendent indispensables aprés une si longue absence En attendant je puis vous assûrer que je n'ay rien apperçû icy qui puisse tant soit peu alterer ou rallentir les soins de nos veritables et communs interests que je fay consister dans la fermeté et la durée de notre derniere Alliance vous verrez cela plus au long á mon arrivée Je Suis c. To Sir John Temple Sheen July 22. 1668 SIR THough I doubt our late Motions may have lost or delay'd some of your Letters which we have now been some time in want of yet I presume ours have had their constant Course to you though from several Parts And though mine have not been frequent upon the Permission you give me to spare my own Eyes and Time when they are otherwise taken up and trust to my Sister 's entertaining you Yet upon my return home after three Years absence I could not but give you some Account of my coming and stay here and of what I can foresee is like to follow it both as to my own Particular and to the publique Affairs in which That seems at present to be so much involved After the Conclusion of the Tripple Alliance and the Peace of Aix I was at an end of my Ambition having seen Flanders saved as if it had been by one of the Miracles the House of Austria has they say been used to and the general Interests of Christendom secured against the Power and Attempts of France and at the same time the Consideration and Honour of His Majesty and his Crown abroad raised to a Degree it has not been in for some Ages past and we had no reason to expect it should be in some Ages to come upon the Decline it felt after the Business of Chattam and the Peace of Breda that succeeded it I returned from Aix to Brussels without other Thoughts than of continuing in that Station till I grew wearier of it than I was like to do very suddenly of a Place I confess I love But immediately upon my Arrival there I met with Letters from my Lord Arlington which brought me the King's Orders to continue the Equipage of an Ambassador that I was in upon my Aix Journey in order to my serving His Majesty in the same Character at the Hague whether he was resolved to send me and to renew upon occasion of our late Alliances a Character which the Crown of England had discontinued in that Country since King James's Time In order hereunto I was left at liberty to take my Leave of the Marquis and to return into England as soon as I pleased which I did by the Way of Holland and left most of my Servants and Horses at Utrecht Upon my Arrival here I was received both by the King and Court a great deal better than I could deserve or pretend But People seem generally pleased with the Councils and Negotiations in which I have had so much Part since Christmas last and I understand not Courts so ill how little soever I have been used to them as not to know that one ought not to lose the Advantage of coming home with the common Opinion of some Merits or good Hitts at one's Back if one's Business be de pousser sa Fortune And I am put enough in mind of it upon this Occasion by several of those many new Friends one would think I had at this time of Day as well as by some of my old ones But I cannot imagine why I should pretend to have deserved more than my Pay of the King for which I served Him in my late Employments and if I got Honour by them 't was so much more than I had to reckon upon Besides I should be sorry to ask Money of him at a time when for ought I can judge by the Cry of the Court He wants it more than I do The Spanish Ambassador and Baron d' Isola as well as others of my Friends would needs be asking a Title for Me and 't is with difficulty enough that I have prevented it But 't is That I am sure I never can have a mind to and if it should ever be offered me I resolve it shall either begin with you if you desire it or if not with my Son which I had much rather But I suppose nothing of this can happen in our Court without Pursuit and so I reckon my self in all these Points just where I was about six Months ago but only designed for another Ambassy and no Man knows how That will end I am very much press'd to dispatch my Preparations for it by my Lord Keeper and Lord Arlington who are extream kind to Me as well as to the Measures lately taken by their Ministry and seem to value themselves a great deal upon them They say all the Business the King now has both at home and abroad will turn upon my Hand in Holland by keeping the French from breaking in upon our late Alliances and the Confidence between Us and by drawing the Emperor and Princes of the Empire into a common Guaranty of the Peace and thereupon they are mighty earnest with me to hasten away On t'other side the Commissioners of the Treasury seem to have more mind to my Company here than I could expect For after some of them had tryed to hinder the King's Resolution of sending either an Ambassador at all into Holland upon Pretence of so long Disuse of that Character or Me in particular when That could not be carried they prepared my Way by entring upon new Regulations in the Exchequer among which those concerning foreign Employments brought down the Equipage Money of Ambassadors from three thousand Pounds as it has been since the King came in to fifteen hundred Pounds in France and Spain and to one thousand Pounds in all other Courts And their Allowance from one hundred Pounds a Week to ten Pounds a Day in France and Spain and to seven in other Places Though this be pretended by the Commissioners as only a Piece of a general Scheme of Parsimony they find necessary in the present Condition of the Revenue Yet I understand it as calculated just at this Time particularly for Me and my Lord Arlington confesses he thinks it so too and takes part in it as a piece of Envy or Malice to Himself as well as to Me from some who are spighted at all that has lately passed between Us and Holland and at the Persons who have been at the
our Point upon the Business of Surinam which was yesterday resolved on by the States General though the Province of Zealand protested against it And besides nothing has given us so hopeful a Prospect of the Prince's good Fortunes here as the Support of the Town of Amsterdam so declared and so warm in his present Concernment towards which I am confident Monsieur Van Beuninghen has very much contributed as being a Person of very great Influence in that City The State of that whole Business is so well and so fully set down in the Paper of Intelligence that I am sure I cannot amend it and therefore will not repeat it Your Lordship will know by the inclosed that Monsieur de St. Evremont set out this Morning towards England with the Portugal Ambassador likewise who both accompany Monsieur d'Opdam as far as Nieuport and there embark for Dover whilst he goes on to meet the French King at Dunkirk with the States Complements I am ever my Lord your c. POSTSCRIPT I Had forgot to tell your Lordship That another part of Monsieur Van Beuninghen's Instructions will be to endeavour all that can be that this State may be admitted into a Conjunction with his Majesty for the Pursuit of the Algerins till they are reduced to the Necessity of a Peace with both To Sir John Trevor Hague May 27. S. N. 1670. SIR I HAVE this Day received yours of the 13th current with the Account of my Lord of Essex's Treatment in passing the Sound which if wholly new was what we had very little Reason to expect from that Crown since the Change of their Ministry Though there are some Reports here that they intend to keep up a close Intelligence with France for fear of the Suede whose Forces give them at this time it seems some Jealousy I will hope my Lord of Essex may receive the Satisfaction he demands however he will have that of having discharged his part upon this Occasion with the Constancy that became him I do not question but you will receive a wiser Answer as you say from Spain and wish they could find wiser Men to encharge with their great Affairs and Governments than you will see they do by the Accounts I know you receive from Brussels of the Constable's late Caprices in order to his return for Spain It is here variously discoursed who shall succeed him The old Empress and Prince Charles of Lorrain being still in Name among some others either of which or both together as it is talk'd of seeming the best Choice that can now be made by the Crown of Spain It is wish'd here that his Majesty would further it all he can by the Offices of his Minister in that Court Yesterday the Spanish Ambassador's Secretary came to communicate to me a Letter he had received from the Ambassador at Brussels taking notice that upon a more particular Observation of our late Ratification of the Concert the Date of it was preceding to that of the Concert it self signed by me here at the Hague which was the last of January N. S. whereas the Ratification at Westminster bears Date the 7th of January O. S And this Remark of the Ambassadors I find to be true by comparing it with the Copy of the Ratification that lies by me And doubt not but the Mistake only was of the Month of January for February in the Ratification you sent me over Whereupon I assured the Secretary there could be no Difficulty in the Redress of it and he desired me to endeavour it as soon as I could and I hope the Notice of it may come time enough to prevent the same Mistake in the Instruments intended for Sueden and Holland as well as to procure a new one for Spain I could not by the last Post give you the Certainty of the Issue in the Prince of Orange's Affair the States of Holland not rising till one a Clock that Night after the warmest Debates which have been known among them for many Years However the Towns which favour the Prince having the Plurality of Voices and Amsterdam in the Head of them at length carried their Point and brought it to a Resolution That the Prince should have Session in the Council of State with a decisive Voice and should have the same Place his Ancestors were used to After this was resolved on that Party which the most opposed the Prince's Interest started two new Points The First That no Captain-General should be chosen otherwise than from Year to Year but by Unanimity of Voices And Secondly That in case the Prince should be chosen Captain-General for Life then it should be again debated and resolved by Plurality of Voices whether he should continue his Session in the Council of State And these two Points were agreed to by all the Towns excepting four or five in which number were Amsterdam and Haerlem who maintain That they were not now to be resolved but then only when those Matters came in Question The States of Holland being separated after these Resolutions the Execution of that concerning the Prince's entrance into the Council of State will remain in the States General and consequently receive no Opposition that I can foresee And though it bears no great Name yet I take it to be of that Importance as to leave his Highness's future Fortunes in a manner wholly dependant upon his own Carriage and Personal Qualities which give hitherto all the Signs that can be of advancing and not impairing them In the Course of this Business Monsieur Van Beuninghen has so much provoked the ill Will and Opinion of these Towns which were contrary to the Prince that they had almost resolved to make a Stop of his Journy but that is now over and he prepares to be gone the end of this Week And will not deserve to be less welcom in England for what has lately passed here though perhaps it may not be to his Advantage nor to the Prince's neither to give him any too publick Testimonies of it He gave me Hopes on Sunday-night that to Morrow the Business of Surinam would be ended according to the Form I drew up in Pursuit of our last Conference which I here send you enclosed Though he told me there would be Difficulty in the Point of Major Bannister's landing with so much Liberty as is insisted on And therefore he pressed me hard to be content with either remaining aboard his Ships or else lodging in the Fort till his Affairs were dispatched where all Convenience should be provided him But I refused both and so left the Thing with him in the Form it now runs I am Sir your c. To my Lord Berkeley Hague May 30. S. N. 1670. My LORD THo' I know your Excellency would easily forgive me a Commission which might save you a Trouble in the midst of many others that are a great deal more necessary Yet I could not forgive my self if I should any longer delay giving your
Servare modum finemque tueri Naturamque sequi P Lely pinx R. White sculp Printed for I. Tonson A. J. Chruchil R. SimpsoÌ„ Dominus Gulielmus Temple Equos Baronettus Ser.miet Pot. mi Mag. Britanniae Regis ad Ord Eoed â— Belgii Legatus Exns. et apud Tractatus pacis tamdquisgram quam Neomagi Legat Mediats. Ejusdem Ser. mi Regis a Secretioribus Concilus 16â—… LETTERS Written by Sir W. Temple Bar t. AND OTHER Ministers of State Both at Home and Abroad CONTAINING An ACCOUNT of the most Important Transactions that pass'd in Christendom from 1665 to 1672. In Two Volumes Review'd by Sir W. Temple sometime before his Death AND Published by Jonathan Swift Domestick Chaplain to his Excellency the Earl of Berkeley one of the Lords Justices of Ireland LONDON Printed for J. Tonson at Gray's Inn Gate in Gray's Inn Lane and A. and J. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row and R. Simpson at the Harp in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCC TO HIS Most Sacred Majesty William III. King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. These Letters of Sir W. Temple having been left to my Care they are most humbly presented to Your MAJESTY by Your Majesty's most dutiful and obedient Subject Jonathan Swift THE Publisher's Epistle TO THE READER THE Collection of the following Letters is owing to the diligence of Mr. Thomas Downton who was one of Sir William Temple's Secretaries during the whole time wherein they bear date And it has succeeded very fortunately for the Publick that there is contained in them an Account of all the chief Transactions and Negotiations which passed in Christendom during the seven Years wherein they are dated as The War with Holland which began in 1665 The Treaty between His Majesty and the Bishop of Munster with the Issue of it The French Invasion of Flanders in the Year 1667 The Peace concluded between Spain and Portugal by the King's Mediation The Treaty at Breda The Tripple Alliance and The Peace of Aix la Chapelle in the first Part. And in the second Part the Negotiations in Holland in consequence of those Alliances with the Steps and Degrees by which they came to decay The Journey and Death of Madame The seisure of Lorrain and his Excâ—llency's recalling with the first Unkindness between England and Holland upon the Yatch's transporting his Lady and his Family And the begnning of the second Dutch War in 1672. With thâ—se are intermixt several Letters fa◠〈…〉 and pleasant 〈…〉 Book among Sir William Tem◠〈…〉 â—â—th many others wherewith I had thâ—â—pportunity of being long conversant having passâ—d several Years in his Family I pretend no other Part than the Care that Mr. Downton's Book should be correctly transcribed and the Letters placed in the Order they were writ I have also made some literal amendments especially in the Latin French and Spanish These I have taken Care should be translated and printed in another Column for the Use of such Readers as may be unacquainted with the Originals Whatever faults there may be in the Translation I doubt I must answer for the greater Part and must leave the rest to those Friends who were pleas'd to assist me I speak only of the French and Latin for the few Spanish Translations I believe need no Apology It is generally believed that this Author has advanced our English Tongue to as great a Perfection as it can well bear and yet how great a Master he was of it has I think never appeared so much as it will in the following Letters wherein the Style appears so very different according to the difference of the Persons to whom they were address'd either Men of Business or Idle of Pleasure or Serious of great or of less Parts or Abilities in their several Stations So that one may discover the Characters of most of those Persons he writes to from the Stile of his Letters At the end of each Vollume is added a Collection copied by the same hand of several Letters to this Ambassadour from the chief Persons employ'd either at home or abroad in these Transactions and during six Years course of his Negotiations Among which are many from Pensionary John de Witt and all the Writings of this kind that I know of which remain of that Minister so renowned in his time It has been justly complained of as a defect among us that the English Tongue has produced no Letters of any value to supply which it has been the Vein of late Years to translate several out of other Languages tho' I think with little Success Yet among many Advantages which might recommend this sort of Writing it is certain that nothing is so capable of giving a true Account of Story as Letters are which describe Actions while they are alive and breathing whereas all other Relations are of Actions past and dead So as it hath been observed that the Epistles of Cicero to Atticus give a better account of those times than is to be found in any other Writer In the following Letters the Reader will every where discover the Force and Spirit of this Author but that which will most value them to the Publick both at home and abroad is First that the Matters contained in them were the Ground and Foundation whereon all the Wars and Invasions as well as all the Negotiations and Treaties of Peace in Christendom have since been raised And next that they are written by a Person who had so great a share in all those Transactions and Negotiations By residing in his Family I know the Author has had frequent Instances from several great Persons both at home and abroad to publish some Memoirs of those Affairs and Transactions which are the Subject of the following Papers and particularly of the Treaties of the Triple Alliance and those of Aix la Chapelle but his usual Answer was that whatever Memoirs he had written of those Times and Negotiations were burnt however that perhaps after his Death some Papers might come out wherein there would be some Account of them By which as he has often told me he meant these Letters I had begun to fit them for the Press during the Author's Life but never could prevail for Leave to publish them Tho' he was pleased to be at the Pains of reviewing and to give me his Directions for digesting them into Order It has since pleased God to take this great and good Person to Himself and he having done me the Honour to leave and recommend to me the Care of his Writings I thought I could not at present do a greater Service to my Countrey or to the Author's Memory than by making these Papers publick By way of Introduction I need only take notice that after the Peace of the Pyrenees and His Majesty's happy Restoration in 1660. there was a general Peace in Christendom except only the Remainder of a War between Spain and Portugal until the Year 1665. when that between England and Holland began which
should have had any Part in this Delay and that you should have told him you had no Orders from me to pay him that Money However to take away all scruple if any can still remain after our last Conference at Brussels upon this Subject I do by these Presents order and appoint you pursuant to those Powers that have been given me from the King to pay or cause to be payd to Monsieur Rhintorf or his Order alâ— such Sums of Money as you shall any ways be able to raise either by the Sale of such Tin as is already arrived or shall arrive at Ostend upon his Majesty's Account with all the Diligence and Dispatch that is possible Or in case you do not find any ready Sale for it that you will at least pay him all such Sums as you shall be able to raise by pawning or engaging it to the best advantage you can after this I need say no more than to Conjure you by all the Zeal you have for his Majesty's Service and all the Friendship you have for me to employ upon this Occasion your utmost Diligence and Credit for the Conjuncture is grown so extremely pressing at this time that I can never say enough to recommend this Service to your best Endeavours I am SIR Your Servant To my Lord Arlington Brussels Oct. 13. S. N. 1665. My Lord UPON Saturday last about Nine at Night the Bishop's Agent there brought me a Desire from the * Of Castel Rhodrige Governâ—â— of the Spanish Netherlands Marques to come privately to him We stay'd long together and talked much The Substance was that he had last Post writ to the Spanish Ambassadour to inform the King that he heard the French were ready to march in Assistance of the Hollander against the Bishop of Munster and had told the Spanish Ambassadour in France they should take all Delays here in leave of Passage for Denial That he the Marquess was resolved upon Confidence of his Majesty's late Letter and Assistance to oppose them till he received Orders from Spain and hopes his Majesty will not fail of protecting and defending him in this Resolution He speaks with much Earnestness and Passion for concluding the League between England and Spain and either a Peace or Truce between Spain and Portugal in which he very much presses His Majesty's Interposition at this Time because nothing else will take away the Dishonour on the Spanish side but the Respect given to so Great and Powerful a King's Mediation He assures me he has given an absolute Denial to the Hollanders Demand of buying a great Quantity of Corn in these Countries which now begins to be one among their other great Wants That the French upon Jealousie of the Swede sent very lately an Envoy into Holland to join with them in pressing the Dane to put himself into a Posture of making a Diversion That for Security of these Countries six thousand Spaniards and Italians were in few Days expected here these by Land those by Sea And that for raising German Troops he had last Week sent five hundred thousand Gilders into Germany from whence if they needed he could have twenty four thousand Men so as he doubted not to defend these Countries if France Assaults him The Biass of all this Discourse was to shew they had no great need of our Assistance at the same time they press so much to be assured of it and to represent the mutual Necessity of a Conjunction between England and Spain with all the Expressions of Affection to His Majesty's Person and Service that a Courtier or almost a Lover could use Upon this last Subject I could not let him pass with the Discourse of the late King's Ruine and His Majesty's Danger at home for want of Friendship abroad nor could I leave that Point because he had so often harped upon it till I forced him to confess at least by Silence that his Majesty was as safe at Home at this time as either French or Spanish King For the rest finding him now much warmer than he used to seem in the Desires of the Bishop of Munster's Success or at least Preservation and finding from Alderman Backwell that he had yet been able to raise no more Money upon all our Tin at Antwerp for the second Payment those paltry Merchants combining to Ruine him in the Price of it upon the Belief of his Necessity to sell I would not omit that Occasion of desiring the Marquess to find some Person out that should take it all off our Hands with ready Money which they might raise at their own leisure and I believed with much Gains in which I assured him he would give His Majesty a great Testimony of his Affection to his Service which was so much concerned in the Bishop of Munster's Fortunes He told me he would consult about it next Morning and upon Sunday Night sent one with a Dispatch of mine to Alderman Backwell to know the whole Quantity and lowest Price So that I am now in great hopes of seeing some good Issue of that Business which I almost begun to despair of An Express from the Bishop of Munster came to me on Saturday last protesting he could no longer subsist unless the Money came anâ— Your Lordship may easily imagine how much Pain I am in upon that Occasion especially hearing my Self so often reproached for having drawn him to so desperate an Adventure so much against his own Resolutions which were not to take the Field till the second Payment were received and the third assured on this side It would look like Vanity in me to tell Your Lordship more of what I hear too much of this kind but I will say that unless you take some speedy and effectual Resolution in this Particular I shall look like the veriest Rogue in the World and such as it will not be much for his Majesty's Honour to employ But after all I will tell Your Lordship freely that I think all my Trains had not taken Fire without a perfect Accident which I had the good Fortune to improve so upon the sudden as to make it the absolute Occasion of the Bishop's taking the Field when he did which I shall some time or other I hope entertain you with and will serve for a Moral to shew how small Shadows and Accidents sometimes give a Rise to great Actions among Mankind for either such or the beginning of such this bold March is like to prove All I know of its Success you will find in these Letters one from my Lord Carlingford to whom I cannot send Your Lordship's last till I have farther Directions from him for my Address the other being Part of one from a Person in the Holland Camp belonging to the Rhingrave Twenty Rumours more we have of his Successes but I will not yet credit them this much I will that nothing can probably endanger him besides want of Money and that I know him to be a Man too firm to be
matin Quant a moy le soir le matin vous me trouverez toujours Monsieur Votre tres Affectionné Serviteur To the Marques of Castel Rodrigo Brussels Dec 12. S.N. 1665 My Lord THE News of your Excellency's Indisposition has very sensibly afflicted me but God Almighty will I doubt not quickly restore your Health which is of too great Importance to Christendom to sink under common Accidents I desire your Pardon for the Liberty I take to let you know how Monsieur Rhintorf complains exceedingly that he finds yet no Advance in the Affair you were pleased to undertake for his Master's sake and indeed for that of the King my Master too I desire your Excellency once more to give your Hand to it and that if those Merchants will not buy the Tin you will give Order at least to have it engaged for three parts of it's value so as some present Remedy may be found to the Bishop's Necessities wherewith by means of this delay he is now press'd to the last Extremities I take more part in this Affair having already writ to the King my Master that you had wholly finished it in affection to his Service for which I do not doubt but you will receive His Majesty's Thanks by the first Courier so that I shall be in the greatest Confusion imaginable if the Business fails and His Majesty cannot chuse but think me very impertinent By my last Dispatch from Court of the 18th instant I am informed that the Spanish Ambassadour did that Evening privately deliver his new Credentials to the King to whom and his Ministers he still continued to be very acceptable and that upon arrival of these Credentials they began to enter in good earnest upon adjusting our common Interests By a Letter of the 15th instant from the Prince of Munster I am informed of the great and happy Progress of his Arms but on t'other side that the Hollanders used their last Endeavours to raise against him all the Protestant Princes of the Empire under pretext that Religion has part in the Quarrel as well as the Interest of the House of Austria And on both these Accounts as well as from your own Generosity your Excellency is engaged not to disappoint him in this little occasion not to alledge the Moral which tells us That whatever good we can do without damage to our selves we are obliged to do even to a Stranger Upon an Answer from your Excellency I am ready to dispatch an Express to Antwerp and shall remain My Lord Your Excellencies most humble and obedient Servant Au Marquis de Castel Rodrigo Brussels Dec. 12. S. N. 1665. Monsieur LA Nouvelle de l'indisposition que votre Excellence a ressentie depuis quelques jours m'a sensiblement touché mais je ne doute point que Dieu ne retablisse bien-tôt une santé qui est trop necessaire à la Chretienté pour succomber sous des accidens vulgaires Je vous demande pardon de la liberté que je prens de vous avertir que Monsieur Rhintorf se plaint extrement de ce qu'il ne trouve encore rien de fait dans l'affaire qu'il vous a plu de prendre á coeur en faveur de son Maitre ainsi que sur la recommendatidu Roy mon Maitre Je supplie V. E. d'y mettre encore une fois la main de donner ordre que si on a resolu de ne point accepter cette Marchandise du moins on la prenne en gage pour les trois quarts de sa valeur á fin de remedier sur le champ aux necessicez dont Monsieur l'Eveque se trouve pressé qui peut etrê sont rendues extremes par ce retardement Je me trouve d'autant plus interressé dans cette affaire qu'ayant deja mandé au Roy mon Maitre que vous l'aviez touta fait finie dans la veue de rendre service á sa Majesté ce qui vous sera sans doute marqué avec remerciment de sa part par le premier Courier je sero is l'homme du monde le plus confus le plus impertinent aux yeux du Roy mon Maitre si citte affaire venoit a manquer Par la derniere lettre que j'ay receue de la Cour dattée du 18. du courant j'ay étê averti que Monsieur l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne avoit le soir de ce jour lá presenté au Roy ce◠novelles lettres de creance que sa personne etoit toujours fort agreable á ses Ministres qu'au reste sur l'arrivée de ces nouvelles lettres de creance on alloit commencer de fort bon coeur á ajuster nos interets communs Par une lettre du Prince de Munster du 15. du courant j'ay eté averti de ses grands heureux progrez mais que d'un autre coté les Hollandois faisoient tous leurs efforts pour soulever contre luy tous les Princes Protestans de l'Empire sous le pretexte que la Religion la Maison d'Autriche y etoient interessés C'est par lá aussi bien que par vôtre generosité que vous êtes engagé à ne luy pas manquer en cette petite occasion pour n'alleguer pas la Morale qui nous dit Quicquid sine detrimento facere potes vel ignoto faciendum Sur la Response de V. E. je suis tout prêt á depecher un exprez á Anvers bien resolu d'etre toujours de V. E. le tres humble tres obeisant Serviteur To Sir William Coventry Brussels Dec. 15. S. N. 1665. SIR I Am to acknowledge both the Honour and Obligation I received by yours of November the 9th the last of which seems so great in that Light you give it and by those Circumstances I now see attend it that had it come from any other hands I should have wished a thousand Times never to have received it For there are very few I desire much to be obliged to having always thought that a sort of Debt which ought as duly to be paid as that of Money with more Interest and much greater Difficulty of casting up But knowing that all generous Persons are apt to favour and esteem their own rather such whom they oblige than such as serve them I am extreamly glad to have my Name enter into the knowledge of his Royal Highness by his Bounty and Favour in the Grant of those Passports rather than any other way I could have taken and beg of you that with my humble Thanks His Royal Highness may know I enter into his Service with this Advance of Wages which it shall be always my Endeavour as it is my Duty to deserve I owe and should say a great deal to your self upon this Occasion but that with my Thanks for the Thing it self I am to join my Complaints for the manner
you have too great a Regard for your Faith and Honour to darken the Lustre of so fair a Life by so foul a Stain This I do not fail continually to inform both His Majesty and his Ministers nor do I doubt but if Fortune shall be wanting to the Justice of your Arms so far as that your Highness shall be in Danger of being brought to the last Extremities you will at least have that Regard to so sacred a League and to the Honour of so great a King as to give His Majesty timely Notice declare the invincible Necessities you lay under and desire permission to enter upon new Councils As for us I am sure your Highness is sufficiently convinced of His Majesty's Care in performing his Part and how happily he has overcome the greatest Difficulties and Straits wherein by occasion of the late Pestilence his Revenues have been involved About ten days ago I gave Monsieur Rhintorf Letters of Exchange for 77000 Dollars He is a diligent Person a Friend to the common League and of equal Probity and Industry I have given him also other Letters wherein a very Rich Merchant of Amsterdam has undertaken to transmit 30000 Dollars more to me with all convenient speed I have also Orders from His Majesty to advance Mony for your Highness upon a great quantity of Tin lately recovered from Shipwreck at Ostend And His Majesty has further given me in Charge to let your Highness know that whatever remains shall be paid without fail All this matter was finish'd before Mr. Sherwood's departure for England whom I have however instructed with the best Council I could as well as with Letters of Recommendation to the chief Ministers tho' I 〈◊〉 certain His Majesty's Justice and Truth will be more prevalent in this Matter than the most importunate Sollicitations or Complaints In the mean while I shall use my utmost Care and Diligence for the Service of your Highness and it will be your part not to be wanting either to His Majesty or your own Honour and Safety which are all concerned in this Conjuncture I also beg your Highness not to be discouraged by your Enemies not to distrust your old Friends not despaire of raising new ones Time for the better changes many things In the mean time I wish your Highness Health and Victory and desire you will ever esteem me SIR Your Highness's most obedient humble Servant Episcopo Monasterii Brusselles Mar. 19. N. S. 1666. Celsissime Domine REcté tempestivè admodum mihi redditae sâ—â—â— literae Celsitudinis vestrae 9º Martii dataecâ—â— quibus plané perspexi quaâ— incoâ—cussâ fide quam decorâ constantiâ C. V. ressuâ—s semper â—rnatâ—ur a sit dum casdeâ—â— eximiâ prudentiâ animo molitur inteâ—ea gubernat Mihi certe nihil erit unquam antiquius isto officio quod semper praestiti praestitâ—â—us sum tam in illis omni medo prâ—movendis quam in formandâ si opus fuerit erigendâ sacrae suae Regiae Majestatis fiduciâ quâ praecipuè niti videtur communis fâ—ederis vinculum robur hoc praesertim tempore cum multi vafri vertosi homines illam pedibus eant labefactatum majore levitate nescio an malitiâ In hac urbe pacem jam ratant â—â—inter C. Vm. Hollandos post habitis omnino rationibus foederis nostris nedùm consultâ voluntate ego utrisque auribus quotidiè accipio credulitatem simulo toto autem pectore inficias oâ—â— Rumoribas certè susuâ—ris nec mihi alioâ— pasâ—ere assuetum nec meipsum excruciare coâ—â—â—oâ—um nic paule fateâ— literis Ducis Brâ—siâ— censis viro sagaâ—â— in hac 〈◊〉 transmissâ—â— quâ—â— ipse naperrime 〈…〉 diligentinâ— inquiâ—â—â— sâ—se amicum multâ— spelactare videtâ—r pacis in universis istis Geâ—â—â—â—â—â— partibus breviter â—â—st iâ—â—endae sibique pro compertâ— const are asserit Principem Monasterii eam libentissimè accepturum modò fine summa ignominiá damno eam oblatam iri contingat in quo vicinos ait Principes oleam operaâ— summo jam studio impendere Marchionem de Castel Rodrigo eandem imbibisse plané opinionem sentio doleo quippe ejusmodi eventum C. V. vitio verti necesse est Regi Domino meo imprudentiae forsan aut saltem infaelicitati Nec Hispanos usque adeo jam temporiâ— generosos aestimo ut provibendo foedoxi quod jam arctiâ— astrictum iri speramus nuperrimâ Comuâ—â— de Sandwich in Hispaniam Legatione fortius impellant remos si Regem Dominâ—â— meum inter tantos hostes ab intimo foederate desertum iri sibi ve falso persuaserint Ego interea tam ex postremus literis quam ex ingenti C. V. indole genio moribus etiam studiis mihi è contra procul omni aleá persuasum habeo eam virtuti fidei gloriae nimis foeliciter litassé quam ut tot decora tam insignis vitae tantâ ' labe infuscari ullo modo patiatur Hoc sacrae suae Regiae Majestati hoc Ministris regiis inculcare non desino nec ullus dubito si tam justis armis Fortuna in tantum defuerit ut inter tot hostes C. V. in extremis se laboraturam praesentiat quin hoc saltem tanto foederi hoc tanti Regis nomini auspiciis tribuendum judicet ut sacram suam Majestatem non inconsultam velit necessitates insuperabiles exponat veniamque demum impetret novis alienis consiliis incundis Quod ad partes nostras at tinet satis confido C. V. abunde exploratum habeâ—e quanto studio opere sacra sua Regia Majestas explendis ad amussim singuâ—â—s invigilaverit quantaque demum faelicitate angustias difficultates summas eluctata sit quibus per nuperam contagionem res suas praecipue pecuniarias involutas sensit Ego jam infra decem elapsos dies literas Cambli usque adseptaaginta septem Thalerorum millia valitutas Domino de Rhintorfe 〈◊〉 tradidi viro certo impigro animique erga res communis foederis propensissimi nec minoris ut mihi videtur probitatis quam industriae Eidem alias impertii literas per quas mercator admodum opulâ—ntas Amstelodami in se provinciam recepit triginta adhuc Thalerorum millia mihi quamprimum transmittendi Eodem tempore magnam stanni molem Ostendaeâ—â—per ex naufragio revulfaâ— augendis C. V. â—ationibus impendere inter regia jussahabeo praecipuumque a sacrâ suâ Regiâ Majestate mandâ—â—tum ut C. V. persuasuâ—â— penitus securam vetim quod reliqui est sine ullâ ambagie sâ—â—ctum iri Haec omnia excussa absoluta fuisse advertendum est acte appulsum Domini Sherwood quem tamen in transitu saluberrimis quibus fas erat consiliis commendatoriis apud summos Regios Ministros literis munitum volui etiamsi pro comperio habeam Regis Domini mei justitiam insignem fidem in violatam plus quaeremoniis
Forces into the Field resolved to compel him by joining with the Dutch if he could not persuade him to make the Peace and the Duke of Nieuburg prepared to second him in this Design The French were not wanting in their Offices to the same Ends so that a private Agreement was made about the beginning of this Month for the French Dutch and Munster Envoys to meet at Cleve and there treat the Peace under the Mediation of the Elector of Brandenburg Assoon as the King received this Alarm he sent an Express immediately to command me away the instant I received it with a Commission to the Bishop of Munster and with Instructions to do all I could possibly to hinder the Peace and with Bills of Exchange to revive his Payments which had been long intermitted and Promise of more to be remitted every Post which I was to order into his Agent 's Hands here in my Absence I went accordingly acquainting none with my going but the Marquess here who gave me Twenty of his own Guards with Command to follow absolutely all Orders I should give them I was to pass through a great deal of the Spanish Country much infested with Dutch Parties more of the Duke of Nieuburg's and more yet of the Brandenburgers who I know were all Enemies to the Affair I went upon and therefore thought it best to pass for a Spanish Envoy sent from the Marquess Castel-Rodrigo to the Emperour and charmed my small Guard and the Cornet that commanded them to keep true to this Note And some of my Servants as most of the Guards speaking Spanish I spoke nothing else unless in private or when I was forced out of it by some Incident In this Guise I came to Duseldorp where the Duke of Nieuburg happened to be contrary to what I had been informed assoon as I was in my Inn one of his Officers came to know who I was and whither I was going and would not be satisfied by the common Answer from my Servants and Guards but would receive it from me when he came up tho' with much Civility yet he prest me so far that I found there was no feigning with him and so bid him tell the Duke that within an hour I would come and give him an Account both of my self and my Journey I remembred the great Kindness that had ever interceded between His Majesty and this Prince and tho' I went upon an Errand that I knew was disagreeable to him yet I thought he would be less likely to cross me if I acquainted him frankly with it than if I disguised scurvily as I was likely to do being the Thing of the World I could do the most uneasily I had a Letter of Credence which I brought out of England at my first coming over for this Prince but passing another Way to Munster I had not used it and so resolved to do it now I did so gave it him told him my Errand how much His Majesty reckoned upon his Friendship and desired his good Offices to the Bishop of Munster in the Design I went upon of keeping him firm to his Treaties with the King my Master This Duke is in my Opinion the finest Gentleman of any German I have seen and deserves much better Fortune than he is in being small very much broken and charged with a very numerous Issue he seems about fifty Years old tall lean very good Mien but more like an Italian than a German All he says is civil well bred honneste plain easie and has an Air of Truth and Honour He made great Professions of Kindness and Respect to the King was sorry he could not serve him in this Affair his Engagements were already taken with the Emperour and his Neighbour Princes for making the Munster Peace and by that Means keeping War out of the Empire He doubted I could not serve His Majesty upon this Errand neither for he first believed I could not get safe to Munster the Ways being all full of Dutch and Brandenburg Parties who had Notice of the King's Intention to send away to the Bishop upon this Occasion and if I should arrive he believed however I should find the Peace Signed before I came My Answer was short for I was very weary that go I would however I succeeded that for the Danger of the Journey I knew no providing against it but a very good Guide who might lead me through Ways the most unfrequented that I would desire His Highness to give me one of his own Guards to conduct me because none would expect a Person going upon my Design would have one in his Livery for a Guide and I desired he would let me pass as I had done hitherto in my Journey for a Spanish Envoy The Duke after some Difficulties at first which we turned into Pleasantries complyed with me in all I took my Leave and went away early next Morning I never travelled a more savage Countrey over cruel Hills through many great and thick Woods stony and rapid Streams never hardly in any high Way and very few Villages till I came neat Dortmund a City of the Empire and within a Days Journey or something more of Munster The Night I came to Dortmund was so advanced when I arrived that the Gates were shut and with all our Eloquence which was as moving as we could we were not able to prevail to have them opened they advised us to go to a Village about a League distant where they said we might have Lodging When we came there we found it all taken up with a Troop of Brandenburg Horse so as the poor Spanish Envoy was fain to eat what he could get in a Barn and to sleep upon a heap of Straw and lay my Head upon my Page instead of a Pillow The best of it was that he understanding Dutch heard one of the Brandenburg Soldiers coming into the Barn examine some of my Guards about me and my Journey which when he was satisfied of he asked if he had heard nothing upon the Way of an English Envoy that was expected the Fellow said he was upon the Way and might be at Dortmund within a Day or two with which he was satisfied and I slept as well as I could The next Morning I went into Dortmund and bearing there that for five or six Leagues round all was full of Brandenburg Troops I dispatcht away a German Gentleman I had in my Train with a Letter to the Bishop of Munster to let him know the Place and Condition I was in and desire he would send me Guards immediately and strong enough to convey me The Night following my Messenger returned and brought me Word that by eight a Clock the Morning after a Commander of the Bishop's would come in Sight of the Town at the Head of twelve hundred Horse and desired I would come and join them so soon as they appeared I did so and after an easie March till four a Clock I came to a Castle of the
Bishop's where I was received by Lieutenant General Gorgas a Scotchman in that Service who omitted nothing of Honour or Entertainment that could be given me There was nothing here remarkable but the most Episcopal Way of Drinking that could be invented Assoon as we came in the great Hall where stood many Flaggons ready Charged the General called for Wine to drink the King's Health they brought him a formal Bell of Silver gilt that might hold about two Quarts or more he took it empty pulled out the Clapper and gave it me who he intended to drink to then had the Bell filled drunk it off to His Majesty's Health then asked me for the Clapper put it in turned down the Bell and rung it out to show he had playd fair and left nothing in it took out the Clapper desired me to give it to whom I pleased then gave his Bell to be filled again and brought it to me I that never used to drink and seldom would try had commonly some Gentlemen with me that served for that Purpose when 't was necessary and so I had the Entertainment of seeing this Health go current through about a dozen Hands with no more share in it than just what I pleased The next Day after Noon about a League from Munster the Bishop met me at the Head of four Thousand Horse and in Appearance brave Troops Before his Coach that drove very fast came a Guard of a Hundred Hey Dukes that he had brought from the last Campagne in Hungary they were in short Coats and Caps all of a brown Colour every Man carrying a Sabre by his Side a short Pole-Ax before him and a skrew'd Gun hanging at his Back by a Leather Belt that went cross his Shoulder In this Posture they run almost full speed and in excellent Order and were said to shoot two hundred Yards with their skrew'd Gun and a Bullet of the bigness of a large Pease into the breadth of a Dollar or Crown Piece When the Coach came within forty Yards of me it stopt I saw the Bishop and his General the Prince d'Homberg come out upon which I alighted so as to meet him between my Horses and his Coach after Compliments he would have me go into his Coach and sit alone at the back end reserving the t'other to himself and his General I excused it saying I came without Character but he replied that his Agent had writ him Word I brought a Commission which stiled me Oratorem nostrum as was true and that he knew what was due to that Stile from a Great King I never was nice in taking any Honour that was offered to the King's Character and so easily took this but from it and a Reception so extraordinary began immediately to make an ill Presage of my Business and to think of the Spanish Proverb Quien te hase mas Corte que no suele hazer Ote ha d'engannar ote ha menester And with these Thoughts and in this Posture I entered Munster and was conducted by the Bishop to a Lodging prepared for me in one of the Canon's Houses The Bishop would have left me immediately after he brought me to my Chamber but I told him I could not let him go without asking an Hour of Audience that very Evening He would have excused it upon Respect and Weariness and much Compliment but I persisted in it unless he would chuse to sit down where we were and enter upon Affairs without Ceremony He was at last contented and I said all I could towards my End of keeping him to the Faith of his Treaty with the King to the Pursuit of the War till both consented to the Peace and to the Expectations of the Money that was due he answered me with the Necessities had forced him to Treat from the failing of his Payments the Violences of his Neighbour Princes and the last Instances of the Emperour but that he would upon my Coming dispatch one immediately to Cleve to command his Ministers to make a stop in their Treaty till they received further Orders which I should be Master of I went to Supper after he left me but was told enough privately to spoil it before I sate down which was that the Treaty was Signed at Cleve tho' I took no Notice of it because I knew if it were so being angry would hurt no Body but my Master or my Self Next Day the Bishop made me a mighty Feast among all his chief Officers where we sate for four Hours and in Bravery I drank fair like all the rest and observed that my Spanish Cornet and I that never used it yet came off in better Order than any of the Company I was very sick after I came to my Lodging but he got a Horseback on purpose to shew himself about the Town while the rest of the Company were out of sight all the Afternoon The Day after was agreed to give me an Account of the Affair of Cleve upon the Return of the Bishop's Express after my Arrival and at an Audience in the Evening with great Pretence of Trouble and Grief he confest the Treaty was Signed and so past Remedy and that it had been so before his Express arrived tho' much against his Expectation as he profest I am sure 't was not against mine for I left Brussels in the Belief that I should certainly find all concluded which made my Journey much harder than it could have been with any Hopes of succeeding I told him when I found all ended and no hopes of retrieving it that I would be gone within a Day or two and would take my Leave of him that Night being not well and needing some Rest before I began my Journey He said and did all that could be to persuade my Stay till I had represented his Reasons to the King and received an Answer and I found his Design was to keep me as long as he could while his Agent at Brussels received Bills of Exchange from England that were ordered him in my Absence so that I knew not how much every Days stay would cost the King and that no other Service was to be done His Majesty in this Affair besides saving as much of his Money as I could The Bishop finding me immoveable advised me however in pretended Kindness to go by Collen which tho' four or five Days about would be the only Way that was left for me with any Safety the Dutch and Brandenburgers having posted themselves on Purpose to attend my Return upon all the other Roads and he offered me Collonel Ossory an Irish Gentleman in his Service to conduct me I seemed to accept all and to be obliged by his Care but wished my Self well out of it and took my Leave tho' he pretended to see me again next Day I went home laid instead of going to Bed as I gave out I laid my journey so as to be on Horseback next Morning between three and four of Clock upon good Friday which I thought
Point of being perfected Count Marsyn came to me and after a Preface of the great Obligations he had to His Majesty and the Part he took in all our Interests as well as those of Spain he fell into large Discourses of the unhappy Influences any Interruption in the present Treaty would have upon the Affairs of both Crowns He insisted much upon the Hardship we put upon the Spaniards in not consenting to leave the Assistance of their Enemies which was all the Advantage they expected from this Treaty in stead of many they gave that the great Effect of it on both sides would thereby be lost which was a Return into mutual Confidence and at least the Beginnings of a sincere Friendship That Spain having consented to what Terms His Majesty thought reasonable and Portugal not only refusing them but entring at the same into new Dependancies upon France he could not see what could oblige His Majesty to more than offering Portugal an equal Peace and becoming the Warrant of it That at His Majesty's Mediation Spain had given them a Style as usual and as honourable as what they desired and if they could resolve to give them that of King in stead of Crown they had then no need or use of His Majesty's Mediation That whether we thought it our Interest to have a Peace or War in Christendome we must begin by adjusting the Business of Portugal for if we desired the first nothing could so much awe the French into quiet Dispositions as that Peace and ours with Holland to which that would likewise be an Ingredient If the latter and we had a mind rather to be Seconds in a War of Spain with France than Principals in any which he thought was our true Interest nothing could make Way for it or enable Spain either to begin or sustain a War with France but a Peace with Portugal That he was confident His Majesty's consenting to abandon them in Case they refused to be included in our Treaty would force them immediately to accept it that if not and His Majesty should hereafter find it his Interest to support them upon any great Successes of Spain on that side it would be easie to do it by Connivance by voluntary Troops of his own Subjects or by a third Hand provided it went no further than to keep Spain in the Temper of yielding to the Peace upon the Terms His Majesty shall have judged reasonable But for the present without His Majesty's Condescension to Spain in this Point he did not see how we could hope to effect our Treaty or to receive any Fruits of it where new Occasions of Diffidence and Distaste would every Day arise These were the chief of Count Marsyn's Discourses which he ended in desiring me that I would represent them to His Majesty's chief Ministers and particularly to Your Lordship from him as the best present Testimony he could give of his Zeal to His â—ajesty's Service and Affairs and which he would have done himself but for fear it might look like intruding into Matters and Councils he was not called to Besides this single Point upon which this Stop of our Treaty is wholly grounded I could not but represent to Your Lordship some other Circumstances which I imagine may have fallen in and helpt to occasion it I hear France has declared positively to the Spaniard that they will immediately begin the War upon the Spaniards Signing the Treaty with us and concluding the Truce or Peace with Portugal upon our Mediation To this End and to shew the Spaniards they are in earnest they busie themselves in making new Levies and drawing down many Troops upon these Frontiers as well as all sort of Provisions either for Sieges or a Camp Upon this I know not whether the Spanish Councils may be so faint as not to dare give the French any pretence of a Quarrel but preserve their Quiet rather by shrinking than making a bold Peace Or whether being composed of Men that hardly ever lookt out of Spain or consider any thing but that Continent they may not upon Foresight of War either continuing with Portugal or beginning in Flanders rather chuse the first where being Invaders they may give themselves what Breath they please imploy their own Natives in the Charges of Honour and Gain and keep all the Money spent in the War still within their Countrey whereas whatever comes into Flanders never returns and is swallowed up by so many foreign Troops as the Levies for that Service must needs draw together There may yet another and more prudent Consideration arise with these which may for the present delay the Conclusion of our Treaty and that is a Desire to sign it rather before the Winter than in the Spring and by that Means both gain this Summer to finish the Fortification of their Frontiers here and the next Winter to put their Army in a better Posture than they now are or I doubt will suddenly be for the beginning of a Campagne and if this Council should be taken by Concert with us that no Breach of Confidence may grow between us by these Delays but the French only flattered by vain Hopes of breaking our Treaty and thereby induced to let the Spaniard grow a Year older in their Peace with them and slacken the War of Portugal into as low Expence and as little Action or Hazard as they can I know nothing can be said against it and should be apt to believe it were the Councils there in the Breast of any one Person by last Ressort whereas the divided Interests and Passions of the Councellours cannot well suffer them to fall into such a Resolution with hope of Consent and Secret among them all This Reflection puts me upon another I hear from private Hands which may possibly have made some Change in the Course of our Treaty which is that the whole Management of Affairs in the Council of Spain seems at present to be devolved into the Hands of Count Castriglio the Confessor leaving it to him and reserving to himself those Things only which depend immediately upon the Will of the Queen and proposing to himself during his Ministry which cannot be long in regard of Castriglio's great Age to make Way for his own by growing older and practised in Affairs as well as the Knowledge Obligations and Dependances of Persons Now our Treaty having never passed through Castriglio's Hands but conducted by Sir Richard Fanshaw wholly through the Duke of Medina's his declared Enemy and since by my Lord Sandwich chiefly through Pignoranda's who is a third Party 't is not improbable that a new Hand may give it new Form either to add something of his own or to shew his Authority or perhaps to pursue his former usual Dispositions which have been bent upon the War with Portugal considering no Part of the Monarchy but Spain and the Indies and I doubt in particular not very partial to our Alliance or Affairs Upon these Intimations Your Lordship
will infinitely better judge than I to what to attribute the present ill Posture of our Affairs in Spain and how to retrieve it I am ever My Lord Your Lordship 's most obedient and most humble Servant To Don Estavan de Gamarra the Spanish Ambassadour at the Hague Brussels Mar. 29. S. N. 1667. My Lord I Do not know how to acquit my self of the Obligation my Lord Stafford has engaged me in to your Excellency in begging your Favour to procure a Passport from the States for my Wife Your Excellency I am sure will excuse the Care of a Mother in providing all that lay in her Power for the safety of her Children and who to ease her self in it has methinks considered so little to whom she was troublesom If I had been consulted upon this occasion I should not have suffered one I am so nearly concerned in to owe her Safety to those who yet profess themselves Enemies to the King my Master and much less to them that treat the Wife of one of his Ministers like a Merchant in demanding an Accompt of her Goods And therefore am very glad the Passport did not come till she was a Ship-board in one of his Majesty's Yatchs trusting next to God Almighty in the Protection of his Royal Name And tho' I have not yet heard how her Journey has succeeded I esteem my self as much obliged to your Excellency whatever ever happens for your favourable Intentions upon this Occasion to a Man neither known nor deserving to be so as if you had delivered me and my Family from the greatest Dangers God Almighty preserve your Excellency many Years and give me the Occasions of serving you I am Your c. A Don Estavan de Gamarra Brussels 29 di Mar. S.N. 1667. Sennor YO no se que modo me he de rescartar del obligo en que el Sennor Conde de Stafford me ha empennado a V. E. pidiendo su favor en procurar un Passaporte de los Estados de Hollanda para mi mujer V. E. ha de perdona el recato de una sennora que tenia gana de proveyer todo lo que era possible a la seguridad de sus ninvios y para descansarse en este cuidado no se le dava nada mi pareçe a qui en cargava trabajo ni importunidad Si yo huviera sido de lajunta en esta occasion no huviera permitido que una persona que me tocava tan cerca pidiesse su seguridad de los que hazen hasta aora profession de enimigos al Rey mi Sennor y mucho menos de los que havian de trattar a la mujer de un Ministro como a Mercadera mandando la cuenta de su bagaje y por esto me huelgo mucho de que no ha venido el passaporte antes que se hay a embarcado la Sennora en un Yacht del Rey my Sennor confiando se con Dios en el amparo solo de su Real Nombre Aunque no se hasta aora en que ha parado sâ— viage Toda via por â—oque ay de las intenciones tau favorables de V. E. en esta occasion a un hombre ny conocido ny que merece seâ—lo me tengo por obligado al mismo punto como se me huviera rescatado a mi y mi familia de los mayores Peligros que se pueden topar en la mar o la tierra Dios guarde a V. E. muchos annos y a mi me de las occasiones de hazer las obras como la profession de lo que soy De V. E. May humilde Servidor To my Lady Giffard written in the Name of Gabriel Possello Amberes 30. de Marco S. N. 1667. Sennora Mia HE recebido con mucho gusto y no menorre conocimiento la guarnicion de spada que V. S. me ha hecha la merced de enbiarme la qual me ha stado mucho mas encarecida con lo que me ha dicho despues el Sennor Residente de la parte de V. S. que no era menester enternecer me en lagrimas ny oraciones como estoy accostumbrado con el sentimiento de tal obligo y que V. S. se estimara muy bien pagada con una carta Espagnola porque a mi es tan facile de mal escrivir como a V. S. de bien hazer Yes verdad que se tiendra por pagado con una carta Voto a tal que no le faltara carta aunque la pidiera en Gallego Pero digo me di veras es santa V. S. O es hechizera porque esto se a buen seguro que ha hecho milagro y con una guarnicion di plata mi ha herido hasta el coracon y aum mas fuerte que nolo pudiera hazer el mas bravo Cavallero con una oja de Toledo Pero me dira V. S. que estamos en un siglo que no es cosa mueva el hazer milagros con la plata y que con esta sola se cumplen aora hazanas mayores que no con el valor y el acero en los siglos passados Por vida mia que tiene razon V. S. y por este milagro no lo han de cortarla la capa Pero no se como ha de escapar quando la dirè que despues que he tocado esta guarnicion encantada me van amenudo cayendo las canas y en lugar de un viejo de setenta annos me hallo moco de quinze me siento calentar la sangre en las venas y bolverse en triumfo el desterrado amor para afirse d'este miserable coracon y hazer le pedacos en un punto Desdichado de mi que he de tocar otra vez estas pisados tan trabajosas de la ciega mocedad como me basta una vida a padecer dos martyrios Es possible que yo me sienta otra vez abrasor de las llammas amorozas y que de ceniza tanfria salga de nuevo tan violento fuego Que yo me voya otra vez resfriandomi con sopiros y anegandome en las lagrimas y padeciendo las penas y los afanes que no me dâ—xaran la vida si no fuera para sentir cada dia el dolor de la muerte Ah Sennora de mi alma quanto mal me ha hecho conhazarme tanto bien quanto mi ha de costar de veras la burla que me han hecho de ser enamorado di V. S. en mi viyez passada Pero quan facilemente se remedia el mas trabajoso amor con uno poco d'esperanca Yo me voy piensando que una Sennora tan complida no puede desviarse de la razon y que me haviendo tan favorecido quando estava viejo no puede faltar d'alguna piedad para mi descanso estandome aora moco y lindo y enamorado
between him and the States for their own mutual Defence and to this Purpose had sent me over as his Envoy to the States with full Powers and the Draught of a Defensive League between us but refers the rest for what touched Flanders to what the States and I should agree Monsieur de Witt received this Discourse with a Countenance pleased but yet as I mark'd something surprized and as if he expected not a Return from His Majesty so sudden and so resolute He said that the States would be much pleased with the Honour His Majesty did them and the Overture he made them that I should chuse my Time whenever I desired it for my Audience and would pass the Forms of demanding it from the President of the Week That he was still confident the States would enter with His Majesty into the Mediation tho' France gave them Hopes of succeeding by their own That the Provinces differed in Opinion upon what Terms the Peace should be made That Utrecht was so bold as to think nothing but Justice ought to be considered in the Case that all that France had conquered should be restored to Spain and their Pretensions be referred to Judgment or Arbitrage But Holland with most of the other Provinces were of another Mind and considering their own present Condition as well as that of France thought it best to keep the French to their own Offer but he believed would come to Means of more Force if France should recede from what they themselves had advanced to the States That for the Defensive League between us he did not know whether the late Sore were yet fit for such an Application but would try the Mind of the States That he doubted they would think it like to prove too sudden a Change of all their Interests and that which would absolutely break them off from so old and constant a Friend as France to relie wholly upon so new and so uncertain a Friend as England had pâ—â—â—ved I told him that the doing what he said would be the Effect of any Treaties of this Nature between us let them be as tenderly handled and composed as we could That France would take it as ill of us of them to be stopp'd in the remaining Conquest of Flanders as to the forced out of all they had already gained That he knew very well it had been long their Design at any Price to possess themselves of the Spanish Netherlands and he knew as well that it was their Interest to do so considering the Advantages it would give them over all the rest of Christendom that it was as much our Interest to hinder it and that nothing could do it but a firm Conjunction between us That the States Part would be next after Flanders was gone and therefore they had now as much need of being protected by England against France as they thought they had three or four Years ago of being protected by France against England and that they had no other Choice but either continuing their Friendship with France till they should see both Flanders and themselves swallowed up by such a Neighbour or else change their whole Measures and enter into the strictest Alliance with His Majesty for the Preservation of both and let France take it as they pleased Monsieur de Witt confessed the Design of France for the Conquest of Flanders spoke of the Treaties they had made with the States in Cardinal Richlieu's Time and lately offered again for partaging it between them and said he understood very well the Danger of such a Council and Neighbourhood or else he should have fallen into them but the Ventures were great on the other side too that the States were much more exposed than the King that the Spaniards were weak and ill to be trusted by the States between whom there had never yet been any better Measures than barely those of the Munster Peace after so great Rancors and long Hostilities That tho' he believed the German Princes would be glad of what His Majesty proposed yet he knew not how far Sueden might be engaged in the Measures with France who lay here at their Backs in the Dutchy of Bremen And last of all tho' this Resolution seemed now to be taken by His Majesty and his Ministers upon the surest and wisest Foundations which were those of true Interest and Safety yet no Man knew how long they might last That if they should break all their Measures with France and throw themselves wholly upon His Majesty by such a Conjunction any Change of Councils in England would be their certain Ruine That he knew not this present Ministry and could say nothing to them but that he knew the last too well Upon which he said a good deal of our uncertain Conduct since His Majesty's Return and concluded that the Unsteddiness of Councils in England seemed a fatal Thing to our Constitution he would not judge from what Grounds Mais que depuis le temps de la Reyne Elisabet il n'y avoit eu qu'une fluctuation perpetuelle en la Conduite de l'Angleterre avec laquelle on ne pouvoit jamais prendre des Mesures pour deux Annèes de Temps After this ended with some Melancholy that looked a little irresolute I told him that as to their own Interests he knew them and could weigh them better than I that after my Audience and first Conference with Commissioners I should quickly see how the States would understand them in which I knew very well how great a Part he would have That for our Danger I confest they would be first exposed to France and we the last which made it reasonable they should make the first Pace to their Safety That for Sueden I had no Orders to negotiate with them but being fully instructed in His Majesty's general Intentions I should be glad to see them strengthened all I could and to that Purpose if he thought fit I would talk with the Count de Dona the Suedish Ambassadour here and see whether he had any Powers to engage their Crown in any common Measures for the Safety of Christendom that if by such a Conjunction we could extend it to a Triple Alliance among us upon the same Foundation I believed he would think it too strong a Bar for France to venture on That for the Unsteddiness of our Councils I would rather bewail than defend it but that I should not have made this Journey if I had not been confident that had been ended and we now bottommed past any Change or Remove That I could not pretend to know any Body's Mind certainly but my own but that upon this Matter I was as confident of His Majesty's of Your Lordship's and My Lord Arlington's as I was of my own Upon this Occasion I said a great deal not only of the Interests but Resentments that had engaged His Majesty and His Ministers in this Council and concluded that I was confident it could never break but
they would give all to the King's Ships at Sea which theirs or any other Ambassadours gave to his own Person in his Kingdom where his Dominion was as absolute as he could pretend it to be in the narrow Seas which is to uncover first and cover last so that all their Ships should vail to ours when they met in Case ours would in Return take down the Pavilion as a Civility to theirs afterwards and theirs should remain vailed till we had set up our Pavilion again I told him I could say nothing to that Matter which I knew was very delicate but that if ever we agreed in that Point I thought it must not be by Articles or Treaties but by Concert between the Ministers of each Side as for the States first to give absolute Orders to all their Captains to vail to the King's Ships whenever they met them in the narrow Seas and at the same Time to signifie so much to His Majesty in a Letter of Compliment and as a Resolution taken upon Consideration of so near and happy Alliance as was now entred into between the Nations Upon which His Majesty might consider what Returns of Civility he would be content his Captains should make to an Allie so near as this State was now likely ever to be to the Crown of England Monsieur de Witt was willing to fall into any Expedient and said that whenever I came into England he would hope I might bring this last Matter to pass as happily as I had done all the rest That His Majesty should find he would be wanting in nothing that the Point of Civility or Deference might require in this Matter provided it were without acknowledging our Pretensions to the Dominion of the Sea which they must die rather than do but in what should pass they would leave us to our Interpretations and keep themselves to theirs For the provisional Articles according to my Word which made Way for the Treaty's Conclusion I told Monsieur de Witt His Majesty had in his Answer given me Leave to do it with an Article for the Meeting of Commissioners at both Parties Desire to compleat what should be defective and change what should be found inconvenient and cut off any Thing that should be superfluous so as it might appear to be an Original Treaty between us which would be more for our Honour than to copy after the French That tho' His Majesty had given me this Leave in Compliance to the States yet he had rather the Thing should now be left to Commissioners for these Ends than concluded with Reference to them hereafter I made His Majesty's Concession in this Point easie for these two Ends that either they finding His Majesty indifferent in it might grow so too Men being commonly apt to pull the harder the faster another holds or else if they resolved to insist upon it since I was already engaged to value a Thing which costs His Majesty nothing for as much Obligation as I could to the States which might make Way for some material Return upon another Occasion Monsieur de Witt seemed very much pleased at His Majesty's Compliance with them in this Point and said if I knew His Majesty's Pleasure in any Particulars which he desired should be added or any others changed for common Convenience he desired me to tell him and doubted not but we should end it in twenty four Hours but he was unwilling it should fall into other Hands or remain undone for the Reasons I mentioned in one of my last After much Discourse and no Way left to avoid the Thing we agreed it should be done but with an ample Article for the Meeting of Commissioners for those foresaid Ends and after the Perpetuity I will endeavour to get in these Words Aut quousque saltem ex utriusque partis Consensu indicentur Commissarii or some Words to that Purpose And likewise in the Preamble of this separate Instrument some Expressions of this Kind ut omnibus innotescat quam sincerâ sanctaque Fide nuper contractae Amicitiae non modo in praesens sed in posteros colendae cavere voluerunt And Ad divellenda penitus quaecunque non modo dissentionum sed Litium Altercationum Semina And Ad praecidendam spem omnem Expectationem quorumcunque praedictam Amicitiam novis Altercationibus labefactatam iri interesse possit Which are Things that come now only into my Head but shall be digested against we meet to morrow upon this Occasion And this is all that is possible for me to do in this Matter and which at least is likely to hasten the Exchange of the Ratifications and to leave our Alliance the clearest firmest and most confident that can be I confess I am troubled that it cannot be otherwise because Your Lordship says His Majesty would rather have had it so and if you had not sent me after the Treaty's Arrival an Explanation of what was written to me in an unintelligible Cipher it had been so and my Words had been safe but I think it had been worse in leaving a Dissatisfaction between us which is now avoided and I find My Lord Keeper in a Letter to me seems to put no Weight upon it if done in the Manner mentioned and I know you both put a great deal upon any Person 's employ'd by His Majesty being and passing for an honest Man No Post going from hence till the End of the Week I have resolved to dispatch this by the Yatcht that brought over my Brother whose Orders it seems are to return immediately But I know not how to find the safe Conveyance for the Dutch Ratifications unless another Yacht be sent for them about a Week or ten Days hence and to that End I shall leave them with Mr. Carter at my Lord Cravenss House here and who does all His Lordship's Business who shall deliver them to any Person that brings a Letter from Your Lordship to that Purpose This I think will be much better than to venture them with me in my Journey to Brussels or upon a Passage from thence I am ever with My Lord Your c. P. S. I had forgot the mention of this inclosed Memorial given in Yesterday to the States and by their Order sent me with a Compliment They would receive nothing without communicating it to me They resolve upon the Marquess's Answer for the Treating at Aix to send likewise thither but refer the Quality or Number of Persons to the Marquess's Intentions of going himself or sending some Delegate and that I suppose will depend upon Don Juan's coming over In the mean Time the States are absolutely of Opinion with me that no Treaty can begin with good Intentions on the French Side unless they consent to a Suspension of Arms while it lasts and therefore that the Force of our joint Instances at Paris is to be put upon that Point To Sir Orlando Bridgeman Lord Keeper Hague Febr. 12. S. N. 1668. My Lord
I shall always contribute by my good Wishes and whatever Services I may be capable of to the Support of this good Intelligence so happily restored between both Nations In the mean time God Almighty take Your High and Mighty Lordships inot his Holy Protection A mon Audience de congé aux Estats Generaux Hauts Puissants Seigneurs SA Majesté le Roy de la Grande Bretagne mon Maitre ayant vn conclurre si heureusement en si peu de jours trois divers traitez avec V. H. P. S. par lesquels la seureté commune des deux Nations vient d'etre retablie les semences de toutes les nouvelles discordes entierement deracinées le chemin á la paix au repos ouvert pour la Chretienté en cas que nos voifins s'y portent avec la meme foy la meme franchise qui nous la deja fait acheminer sa Majesté croit n'avoir plus besoin de moy en ce lieu puisque les Ministres ne servent ne sont propres qu'a cimenter entretenir la confiance mais la notré se voit etablie sur de si solides fondemens qu'elle n'aura plus besoin des appuis ni des aides ordinaires C'est pourquoy sa Majesté ordonne mon retour a Brusselles pour y poursuivre de concert avec V. S. en faveur de nos voisins ce que nous venons de conclure icy pour nous memes Máis elle m'a commandé sur mon depart d'assurer V. S. de sa part que comme une chose n'est jamais mieux conservée que par les principes qui l'ont fait naitre aussi sa Majesté ne manquera pas d'observer constamment tout ce qui vient d'etre conclu cela avec autant de bonne foy avec la même sincerité la meme droiture de coeur qu'on luy a vû temoigner lors qu'elle l'a fait negotier Et sa Majesté ne doute point que V. S. ne soient entierement resolus á tenir la même conduite á son egard c'est lá le dernier sceau qui doit etre apposé de part d'autre á nos traitez pour preuve d'une parfaite confiance Pour ce qui me regarde en particulier je ne saurois sortir d'icy sans me louer hautement de la judicieuse sincere conduite de Vos H. P. S. dans tout le cours de cette Negotiation particulierement de l'extreme prudence que vous avez fait paroitre dans le choix de Messieurs les Commissaires que vous m'avez donné Leur candeur leur capacité consommée leur ardeur leur application pour l'affaire proposée n'ont pas peu contribué au bonbeur á la rapidité de la conclusion de nos Traitez Pour moy comme je me souviendray toute ma vie avec joye meme avec tendresse du court espace de tems que j'ay passé prés de V. S. aussi dans quelque lieu du monde que je sois appellé á passer ma vie je ne negligeray jamais de contribuer par mes voeux par toutes sortes de soins de services dont je me croiray capable au maintien de cette mutuelle intelligence que je vois si heureusement retablie entre les deux Nations Cependant je prieray Dieu ardamment de prendre vos H. P. S. sous sa sainte protection A Letter from the States to the King of Great Britain Feb. 18. S. N. 1668. SIR IT is merely in Compliance to Custom that we do our Selves the Honour to write to Your Majesty in Answer to the Letter you were pleased to send us relating to Sir William Temple For We can add nothing to what your Majesty has seen your self of his Conduct by the Success of the Negotiation committed to his Charge As it is a Thing without Example that in so few Days three such important Treaties have been concluded so we can say that the Address the Vigilance and the Sincerity of this Minister are also without Example We are extremely obliged to Your Majesty that you are pleased to make use of an Instrument so proper for confirming that strict Amity and good Intelligence which the Treaty at Breda had so happily begun And we are bold to say that if Your Majesty continues to make use of such Ministers the Knot will grow too fast ever to be untyed and Your Majesty will ever find a most particular Satisfaction by it as well as We who after our most hearty Thanks to Your Majesty for this Favour shall pray God c. and remain SIR c. Lettre de Recreance de la part des Etats Au Roy de la Grande Bretagne Le 18. de Feur S. N. 1668. SIRE CE n'est que pour satisfaire á la coutume que nous nous donnons l'honneur d'ecrire á Votre Majesté en response de la lettre qu'il luy a plû nous ecrire au sujet de Monsieur le Chevalier Temple car nous ne pouvons rien ajouter a ce que Votre Majesté meme a vû de sa conduite par le succez de la Negotiation qui luy avoit eté confié Comme c'est une chose sans example que dans si peu de jours trois si importans Traitez ont êté ajustéz aussi pouvons nous dire que l'addresse la vigilance la sincerité de ce Ministre sont aussi sans example Nous sommes bien fort obligés a V. M. de ce qu'il luy a plû se servir vir d'un instrument si propre á achever d'etreindre le noeud d'amitié de bonne intelligence que le traité de Breda avoit commencé á serrer Et nous osons dire qui si elle continue d'employer des semblables Ministres le lien deviendra indissoluble Elle en tirera toujours une satisfaction toute particuliere aussi bien que nous qui aprés l'avoir remercié de tout notre coeur de cette faveur prierons Dieu SIRE c. A Letter from Monsieur de Witt to my Lord Arlington Febr. 14. S. N. 1668. My Lord AS it was impossible to send a Minister of greater Capacity or more proper for the Temper and Genius of this Nation than Sir William Temple so I believe no other Person either will or can more equitably judge of the Disposition wherein he has found the States to answer the good Intentions of the King of Great Britain Sir William Temple ought not to be less satisfied with the Readiness wherewith the States have pass'd over to the concluding and signing of those Treaties for which he came hither than they the States are with his Conduct and agreable manner of Dealing in the whole Course of his Negotiation It appears My Lord that you throughly understand Men
the Resolutions of the Allies from assisting Flanders or at least to gain six weeks time to enlarge their Conquests before the Spaniards can either receive the Recruits they expected or the Assistance of their Neighbours for defending their most considerable Places For as to what the French propose of restoring all they shall conquer between the end of this Month and the 15th of May it seems to me to be too gross and to discover a contempt of our Wit as well as of our Treaty For if all our Offices and Offers to make Spain ratifie what the Marquis has accepted are not sufficient to with-hold them six weeks from what they pretend to restore how will they be capable of restoring for ever what they have already taken I cannot see how their manner of accusing and making Exceptions to the absolute Powers of a Minister of Spain and all this founded upon particular Intelligence they pretend to have from the Court at Madrid nor the formal Objections they make against the Delegation of the Baron de Bargeyck when at the same time they send Monsieur Colbert to Aix la Chapelle How I say all this can admit better Interpretation in what regards their Intentions for the Peace For in whatever comes from these Ministers at Paris I think one may discover an irregular Ambition under a great deal of Affectation and Disguise whereof God only knows the Issue For my self I will tell you in confidence and with my usual Freedom my Opinion in all this I think then in the first place that by all our Negotiations tho' never so well managed by all our Offices and Caresses we shall never obtain a Peace from France while they have any Appearances of pursuing their Interest or their Glory in carrying on the War And that the only way of disposing them to a Peace is to order it so as they may only find their Interests in it which we can no otherwise do but by shewing them the Strength of our Forces and the Firmness of our Resolutions before the War begins and since we only draw a War on our selves by desiring a Peace to endeavour on the contrary to draw on the Peace by making all the Appearances of desiring a War Therefore I think that what remains to be done is to advance as much as possible our Preparations and Forces by Sea and Land and let the Most Christian King know by our Ministers that since His Majesty still declares he is content with the Alternative already accepted by the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo and that all the Difficulty His Majesty finds is only upon the Powers of the said Marquis and the Sincerity of Intentions in the Court of Spain We therefore desire His Majesty to give us so much time by a Suspension of Arms as may be sufficient to send a Dispatch to Madrid and return to Paris with a full and plain Answer from the King of Spain upon the Alternative And truly I think a Months time will be sufficient after the Dispatches of our Expresses from Paris But in the mean time to add that if His Majesty refuses us a Demand so necessary to the Peace of Christendom and will still carry on his Arms without consideration of the Offers of Spain or Offices of the Allies that upon the first Advances he shall make to attack the rest of Flanders we will march with our Forces to defend it and endeavour further by all ways to give him a Diversion both by Sea and Land This I think is all that is left us to do upon the present State of Affairs for obtaining the Peace And as to the inward Dispositions of the Spaniards I will tell you that there is not one of them here of the least Consideration who does not desire it and think it wholly for the present Interest of Spain And the Marquis assures me in confidence that he has not only the Power exhibited but that the King his Master has given him others by which he leaves him Absolute Arbiter of the Conditions of the Peace according as Conjunctures shall serve to make him accept either an equal or a disadvantageous one And all the Delays of Don John seem only to proceed from their hopes of a Peace upon the Project of our Treaty In the mean time I am glad the States have sent Monsieur van Beverning to be at Aix with the Ministers of both Crowns I doubt not but the King my Master will do the same when he shall have received Advice of their Departure For Forms must be observed as well as Substance Though for my share I cannot imagine to what Effect this Congress will meet France having declared it self already upon the Invalidity of the Delegation in particular as well as of the Powers in general And truly I think all Pretence of negotiating without a Cessation of Arms seems a meer Jest in an Affair where two Months Progress in the War may so near end the Dispute upon which they pretend to treat I am Sir Your c. A Monsieur de Witt. Brusselles le 25. Mars S. N. 1668. Monsieur VOus avez appris par les depeches de Monsieur Van Beuninghen du 21. du courant la reponse de la Cour de France sur la treve tart desirée Cette reponse selon moy semble rendre la guerre inevitable et il paroit que toutes les mines que la France fait de la vouloir ne tendent á autre but qua refroidir les Alliez sur le secours de Pais bas ou du moins á gagner un mois et demy de tems afin de pousser ses conquetes avant que les Espagnole puissent recevoir leurs recruites ou des secours de leurs voisins pour munir leurs plus importantes places Car á l'egard de l'offre qu'elle fait de restituer tout ce qui sera conquis entre la fin de ce mois et le 15. de May cela me paroit trop grossier et decouvre meme son mepris pour nos Esprits aussi bien que de notre traité Car si tous nos soins et nos bons offices joints á l'offre que nous faisons de faire ratifier par l' Espagne les articles deja acceptés par le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo n'ont pû obtener de la France qu'elle renonce pour six semaines au dessein de tenter de nouvelles conquetes qui sont du reste les seules qu'elle offre de restituer si tout cela dis je est vâ—ay pouvons nous flater que nous en obtiendrons la restitution entiere Je ne voy pas que leur maniere de chicaner et de faire des exceptions contre les pleins pouvoirs d'un Ministre d'Espagne et tout cela fondé sur les avis particuliers que la France pretendo avoir de la cour de Madrid non plus que les objections formelles qu'elle fait
for their own And therefore rejoyce in all your good Fortunes in Spain and wish you an Encrease of them in your next Designs I am c. To my Lord Keeper Brussels April 3. 1668. My Lord I Received some Days since the Honour of one from your Lordship of the 9th past and though I owe all the Acknowledgements that can be upon it yet I will not so much wrong your Lordship's Time or my own Sincereness as to enlarge them with much Ceremony It will be enough to say that nothing can be more obliging than your Favour to me both in the Degree and Manner of it arising so freely from your Lordship's Bounty and Generousness as well as express'd in a way so franck and so hearty as that of your last Letter and on the other side that no Man can resent it more though they may much better deserve it And that your Lordship can never reckon more truely nor more justly upon any Person 's Esteem and Services than upon mine which I humbly beg your Lordship to believe I doubt you will be troubled with my Wife's Attendances having told Her your Lordship had given Her that Liberty If she ever pretends your Favour and Countenance further than in receiving what the King has made my due upon this Employment while I have it or what His Majesty shall from his own Motion assign me upon any new Commission I disclaim Her before-hand and declare she goes not upon my Errand For I shall never think that too little which His Majesty thinks enough For the rest I will be confident neither your Lordship nor my Lord Arlington intend I should ruin my self by my Employments or that I should at my own Charge bear out a Character which of it self is enough to turn round a Head that has all its Life till these last three Years been used to Shade and Silence In case the Occasion should break and my Journey to Aix should yet fail I ask nothing of His Majesty though putting my self in a Posture to comply with any sudden Necessity of it has already forced me to enter into very considerable Expences But in case I must go I beg your Lordship that has Children to consider how hard it would be for Me to perform such a Journey upon my own Credit Whatever it be His Majesty thinks fit to assign Me upon such an Occasion if He pleases to order Alderman Backwell to furnish Me with a Letter of Credit for so much let it be what it will I will live according to what that and my own little Revenue will reach and not spare any little Presents I have received in His Majesty's Service where His Honour requires it All I desire is only not to be forced into Debts which to say the truth I have ever abhorred and would by my good Will eat dry Crusts and lie upon the Floor rather than do it upon any other Consideration than of His Majesty's immediate Commands and I hope those His Justice and my Friends Favour will prevent I beg your Lordship's Pardon for troubling you with this strange Freedom about my own Concernments which you have pleased to encourage Me to and may at any time check Me in it with the least Discountenance which I doubt I have already deserved But I will not encrease or lengthen my Faults by Excuses nor trouble your Lordship by repeating any thing of what my Lord Arlington receives from Me at large upon the Course of Publick Affairs here which though seeming to change often in others Eyes appears to Me constant in the French Design of a War which I believe nothing can alter but the visible Marks of Force and Steddiness in their Neighbours to oppose them I beg your Lordship's Belief that as I am with very great Reason so I am with very great Passion too My Lord Your c. To Monsieur de Witt. Brussels April 17. S. N. 1668. SIR I Doubt not but you are pleased as much as I at the Contents of the last Dispatches from Paris which make us believe that in two or three Days we shall have the Suspension of Arms to the end of May and then I do not see the least Difficulty that can happen which we shall not easily avoid in the Negotiation of the Peace For I see not how France can draw back after the Satisfaction we are going to give them at Paris And for Spain I never had the least scruple upon their Conduct And I still believe as I ever did that unless we drive them to Despair by ill Usage neither the Spanish Nation in general nor the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo in particular will have recourse to any base Evasions And to speak to you in Confidence as it is necessary between Physicians since the Resolution you have talkt of about driving the Spaniards wholly out of this Country and Cantoning your selves in it And since so many violent Instances made by your Deputies for signing Monsieur de Lyonne's Project without altering a Word or so much as giving the Marquis any Assurance of assisting him in case France should draw back according to the Orders of the Queen I have often heard His Excellency say that if he were now in the Council of Spain he would give his Advice without further Difficulty for making Peace with France by delivering this Country up to them rather than suffer such a Treatment from all their Neighbours who are more interessed in the Loss of it than themselves For it cannot enter into the Marquis's Head why we should give France more Assurances than they desire in case of Spain's refusing the Alternative and even contrary to our Treaty at the Hague and yet refuse to give Spain the bare Assurances of the words of our Treaty in case of France's Refusal after having driven Spain to all we can ask Neither can the Marquis imagine why we press him so much to sign a Project word for word from Mons de Lyonne without first using our Endeavours at Paris to reduce the Affair of Cities in the Heart of the Country to some reasonable Exchange as we have always promised him and as I let him see in one of your Letters Nay without once endeavouring to hinder the Devastations in the Franche Compté So that by this Project he sees clearly he must be confined within Brussels as in a Prison shut up by French Garrisons within seven Leagues of him on one side and eight on the other And that Burgundy may be invaded as an open Country without the possibility of defending it a Day And if the Peace be made upon these Terms every one may see that France will only wait till we are engaged in a Quarrel with our Neighbours or till some Misunderstanding happen between our two Nations to finish the Conquest of this Country which they may do in fifteen days However the Marquis says that in case we will give him Assurances to follow the third of our Separate Articles he is
having only sent an ordinary Servant before to take up his Lodgings Near the Town he was met by a Gentleman from the Rhingrave to tell him that if the Hour of his Arrival had been known he would himself have met him on the Way but however would not fail to do it at his coming to Town He was received there by all the great Guns of the Town the Garrison ranged through the Streets as he pass'd and at the end of them a Volly of their small Shot At his Inn he was immediately visited by the Rhingrave and after him by the Magistrates of the Town The next morning he returned a Visit to the Rhingrave who would by force accompany him back to his Inn. As he went out he had all the great Guns of the Town thrice round and greater Volleys of Shot than the Night before and the Rhingrave met him in his Coach about half a Mile out of Town to perform his last Compliment having told my Lord Stafford that he had express Orders from the States to do all the Honour that was possible both to his Character and his Person From Mastricht he sent a Letter to the Baron de Fraisheim here to give him Notice of his intended arrival upon Friday the 27 th but withal to desire him to keep it private that so he might enter with little Noise or Ceremony in regard he came upon a sudden Journey and a very short Stay and therefore with the Train of the King 's Resident at Brussels rather than of his Ambassador The Baron de Fraisheim did his Part in suppressing the Knowledge of it but the Town having Notice by Orders they had given at Mastricht to that Purpose sent one to meet him in the Mid-way with Compliment and desire that they might receive him as they had done other Ambassadors My Master referred it to them to do as they pleased and the rather because he heard that the French Ambassador had made a Solemn Entry about six Days before with very great Train and Ceremony and he thought by this more private Entry to avoid the Expectation of any other So he was received in the Town with all the Guns and the Burghers in Arms and complimented immediately at his Arrival both from the Magistrates of the Town and a Commander of the Duke of Nieuburg's to assure him that the Duke had given him Orders for two hundred Horse to attend him upon the Confines and to accompany him into the Town as he had done the French Ambassador at his Solemn Entry and that the Baron of Fraisheim's Assurance of his desiring to enter privately had only prevented that Attendance The Night of his Arrival my Master went about ten a Clock Incognito to the Dutch Ambassador's House resolving to tell him that upon his Arrival here he intended to live after another sort with him than with any of the other Ambassadors as well in respect of the near Allyance between their Masters as of their Mediation The Dutch Ambassador happened to be in Bed but having heard of my Master's Intentions came and visited him early the next Morning without Train or Ceremony and gave him full Information of all that had passed here which made good what we met with every where upon the Road that nothing in the Peace could be done till the Arrival of the King's Ambassador here My Master's Indisposition that Morning dlayed his sending to give the several publick Ministers Advice of his Arrival till about ten a Clock and then he was prevented by Compliments First from the French and then from the Spanish Ambassadors which were returned that Morning and succeeded in the Afternoon by Visits from them both in the same Order My Master upon His first Enterview with the Holland Ambassador enquired of him what Intercourse had passed between Him and the Pope's Nuncio and finding that after some Offices by third Persons between them it had stopt upon some Difficulties without coming to any Visits or formal Compliments He spake to my Lord Stafford when he made a Visit of Himself to the Nuncio to let him know in common Conversation that my Master finding by what had pass'd between Him and the Dutch Ambassador that the same Difficulties were like to befal him had omitted to give him any advice of his Arrival but to tell him at the same time that he was very much a Servant to the Merits of the Cardinal Padrone upon his acquaintance with him at Brussels and was very glad to hear of the continuance of his Health since his last Recovery and so that Matter ended as I suppose My Master having no Instruction in that Point and therefore desiring as civilly as he could to take this Occasion of avoiding further Commerce with him I have nothing else worth giving you the Trouble of but am SIR Your most obedient Servant Tho. Downton To the Elector of Mentz Aix May 2. S. N. 1668. SIR THough my own Indisposition and Monsieur Schouborne's Affairs deprived me of the Happiness of seeing him since my arrival in this City I would not however delay any longer to acknowledge the Honour of your Highnessess's Letter of the 12th past and to make you the Offers of my Services since of the King my Master's Affection your Highness wants no Testimonies In the mean while I send your Highness the agreeable News of the Peace the Treaties whereof I have at present in my Hands one Signed in presence of the Dutch Ambassador and t'other in mine which I was glad to obtain by precaution so to surmount the Difficulties raised upon delivering the Instruments to the Nuncio I give your Highness Joy of an Affair so important to the Happiness of Germany and your Highness may justly do the same to the King my Master who tho' at distance and out of danger of this Flame has however contributed more to the extinguishing of it than all those who were most interessed in the Neighbourhood And since this Peace as well as that of Portugal has so justly given His Majesty a Rank so high among the Pacifici Your Highness will joyn your Prayers to mine that God Almighty will please to add also to his Character the Beaâ—i And as your Highness has all Reason to believe the King my Master your Friend so I beg your Highness to esteem me always SIR Your Highness's most c. A l'Electeur de Mayence Aix le 2. May S. N. 1668. Monsieur QUoy que mon indisposition et les affaires de Monsieur Schouborne m'ayent empêché de le voir depuis mon arrivée en cette ville je n'ay pourtant pas voulu differer plus long tems sans me servir de cette voye pour reconnoitre l' honneur que V. A. m'a fait par sa lettre du 12. du passé et sans luy envoyer dans une des miennes les offres de mes services je dis de mes services car pour l'affection du Roy mon
own Truth as well as my Business And so upon the 4th at Night all ended My Dissatisfaction with the Baron Bargeyck's Conduct since I came hither was I confess very great and my Expressions upon it very free in my several Expresses to the Marquis who it seems takes part in it and owns it so far as to seem most extremely ill satisfied with the Ministers using so much Earnestness here in beating him out of all those Designs I have had three several Letters from his Excellency since my being here upon that Subject but all so ill-humoured and so Emportèes that I think they had been better spared and though what was particular to Me civil enough yet some Expressions concerning the general Proceeding wherein I had the chiefest Part so Picquantes that I think I have reason to resent and am sure have not deserved it from any publick Minister either there or here And having answered them accordingly I know not upon what Terms we are like to be upon my Return And therefore could not forbear giving your Lordship the trouble of this Relation to justifie my self not only to your Lordship for there I am sure it will not need but if you think fit to the Count Molina and the Baron d' Isola too who may perhaps have received Letters from the Marquis upon our Proceedings here of the same Style that I have done I have been the more earnest in bringing this Matter to an Issue here which the Holland Ambassador says had never been done without Me because I conceived by all I have had from your Lordship as well as from other Hands not only that you desired it in England but that the Peace was necessary for the Constitution of His Majesty's present Affairs And since he has had the Glory of makng two Peaces so important we have now nothing to wish but to see him in a Condition to make War as well as Peace whenever the Honour and Interest of his Crowns shall make it necessary For that Necessity can I suppose be no ways long avoided but by our being in a Posture to welcome it whenever it comes and to make Advantage of it And I think the best Time to fall into Councils tending to this great End will be after the Conclusion of this general Peace when no Engagement abroad forces His Majesty to have so much need of Money from his People For the Time to repair the Harms that Storms have done a House is in fair Weather and to mend a leaky Ship she must be brought ashore God of Heaven send your Lordship to be an happy Instrument in the Proposal and Application of such Councils and that we may take warning by the poor Spaniards Example whose ill Conduct of late in the Government has so far subjected them to their Neighbours Disesteem and Insolence and Humour as well as to their Conquests Violence and Oppression which I confess have been enough to put them upon such desperate Councils as your Lordship mentions of giving up all to the French in these Countries rather than be the bare Guardians of other Frontiers And yet all these Misfortunes are the natural Consequences of their Conduct and will never fail befalling any Prince that follows their Example I wish That might befal the French to temper a little such an over-grown Greatness but I doubt it much from the present King's Dispositions among whose Qualities those of Carelesness or lavishing his Treasures I am afraid are none Therefore I wish him engaged in some very charming Pleasures or else in some more difficult Enterprises than his last and where we may not have so great a Share That which they talk on here may possibly prove so which is drawing or forcing the Empire to chuse the Dauphin King of the Romans For though his Party be grown strangely powerful in Germany and if Brandenburgh be falling into it as is believed none will be left to the House of Austria that I know of unless Saxony and Triers yet such a body so differently composed as the Empire should methinks very hardly move all one way in any new Course Monsieur Colbert talks of his Master's sending immediately ten or fifteen thousand Men for the Relief of Candy which were a glorious and Christian Council and in all ways that can be to be cherished and applauded And if any Offices could be done towards engaging the French Court in that Design by Us or the Dutch I think they were not ill bestow'd about which I have entertain'd Monsieur Beverning who is of my mind and have insinuated the same Notions among the German Ministers here who swallow it greedily and I hope it may take Effect and help to free all these Parts of the Jealousie which so great an Army must needs give as this Peace is like to leave idle upon the French Hands I intend to begin my Journey to Brussels to morrow Monsieur Beverning gone to day but I doubt I shall be five or six Days upon the Way not knowing any thing now that presses me to more than ordinary Haste I received 600 l. owing me upon my Employment there before my coming away and was very sorry to find by a Letter of my Wife 's that the Fear she had of my being dissappointed in that Particular made her draw up a Memorial which it seems the Council was troubled with about my private Concernments I may very truly and justly disown it as I do and hope she will be pardoned for too forward a Care and Concernment in that business For as to the Charge of my Journey here when your Lordship thinks fit to command it I shall send you the exact Account which my Secretary keeps of all I spend and leave it in your Lordship's Hands for His Majesty to do as he pleases in it which is all the Trouble I shall give you or my self about it I am ever with equal Passion and Truth c. TO The Marquis OF Castel-Rodrigo Aix May 8. S. N. 1668. My Lord I Received yours of the 4th Instant and am glad your Excellency is so extreamly satisfied with the Moderation as you are pleased to style it of the Baronde Bargeyck while at the same time you are so much provoked at the Complaints I made of his Conduct here I shall always openly confess that seeing Don Juan's Arrival with the intended Supplies delay'd and perhaps wholly frustrated seeing Holland so desperately fond of the Peace without considering the Interests of Spain seeing the Emperor appear wholly disinteressed in the Matter seeing Spain had used no Endeavors to engage the King my Master or Sueden otherwise than by fair words And that His Majesty was not in a condition to enter into the Affair alone upon pure Considerations of Generosity or of a Danger at distance Seeing also that Spain approved even the first Project of Peace drawn by Monsieur de Lionne I thought upon all these Considerations that it was their Interest sincerely to finish
Head of those Councils For my part I resent it not only as a Thing I have not deserved upon an Employment cast wholly upon me by the King's Choice and as he seems to think by the Necessity of his Affairs but as that which I find plainly by the short Experience of my last Ambassy will not defray the Expence of another with any Honour to the King or my Self abroad And though I do not pretend to make my Fortune by these Employments yet I confess I do not pretend to ruin it neither I have therefore been resolved several times absolutely to refuse this Ambassy unless it be upon the Terms all others have had But my Lord Arlington puts so much weight upon my going that he will not hear of it He says 't is That our good Friends would have and intend by this Usage and that I can no way disappoint them so much as by going and that this Rule will be broken in three Months time That I should not consider small matters of Money in the course of my Fortune and that the King cannot fail of making mine at a Lump one time or other That there is nothing I may not expect from him upon my return from this Ambassy And that if His Majesty had not thought me of absolute Necessity to him in Holland upon this Conjuncture he had brought me now into Secretary Moris's Place which upon my going abroad is designed for Sir John Trevor My Lord Keeper is of the same mind to have me by no means refuse it as he says neither for the King's sake nor my own And your old Friend Sir Robert Long agrees with them both and says after a Year or two of this Ambassy I cannot fail of being either Secretary of State or sent Ambassador into Spain which are both certain ways of making any Man's Fortune With all this I confess I find it not very easie to resolve and very much desire yours and my Brother's Opinion upon it And that you may the better give it me I shall tell you one Circumstance which weighs a little with me though not at all with my Friends here They are all of Opinion the Measures the King has lately taken cannot be broken nor altered however they may be snarled at by some Persons upon particular Envy or Interest But I see plainly there are others of another Mind Six Thomas Clifford said to a Friend of mine in Confidence upon all the Joy that was here at the Conclusion of the Tripple Alliance Well for all this Noise we must yet have another War with the Dutch before it be long And I see plainly already that He and Sir George Downing are endeavouring with all the Industry that can be to engage the East-India Company here in such Demands and Pretensions upon the Dutch as will never be yielded to on that Side and will encrease a Jealousie they will ever have of our unsteddy Councils and of our leaving still a Door open for some new Offences when we shall have a mind to take them On t'other side the French will leave no Stone unturned to break this Confidence between Us and Holland which spoils all their Measures and without which they had the World before them If they can they will undermine it in Holland by Jealousies of the Prince of Orange or any other Artifice and will spare neither Promises nor Threats If I should be able to keep that Side stanch they will spare none of the same Endeavours here and will have some good Helps that I see already and may have others that do not yet appear If by any of these Ways or other Accidents our present Measures come to change I am left in Holland to a certain Loss upon the Terms they would send me though I should be paid but to a certain Ruin if I should not which I may well expect from the good Quarter I may reckon upon from some in the Treasury And when my Ambassy ends I may find a new World here and all the fine Things I am told of may prove Castles in the Air There is I know a great deal to be said for my going but on t'other Side I am well as I am and cannot be ruined but by such an Adventure as this I beg of you to let me know your Opinion upon the whole And if I could have the Confidence I should beg a great deal more earnestly that I might see you here since I cannot get loose to wait on you there Till I hear from you I shall let the Talk and the Forms of my Embassy go on and am confident however they presume yet I can spin out the Time of my going till about the End of August in hopes of seeing you here which will be I am sure the greatest Satisfaction that can befal SIR Yours c. The End of the First Volume of Sir William Temple 's Letters LETTERS TO Sir William Temple From Sir Thomas Clifford Copenhagen Octob. 7. 1665. SIR I Have received your obliging Letter of the 20 30th past And the News of this Country is like the Commodities not of equal Value with the more Southern and so you are like to be a Loser by the Barter But your Kindness is the greater I hope the King of Spain's Death will no way alter the State of our Affairs with that Crown I cannot yet tell you the Effect of my Negotiation here but shall in my next give you some Hints The Direction of your Letter brings it safe to me I shall advise you before I remove Here came a Report last Night that a Squadron of the English Fleet had taken out of Fleckery nine of the Dutch Merchant-men and ran another on Shoar But I have examin'd it and find there was no Ground for the Report Two of their East-India Men are still at Tunsburg near Christiana in Norway and two more are returned to Bergen But the six Men of War and East-India-Man that came here into the Sound after the Storm are put to Sea and gone toward the Texel The East-India Ship that got into the River of Elve is there unlading and they are sendihg the Goods home in little small Vessels under the Convoy only of a little Toy of eight or ten Guns They go home over the Watts a Privateer lying there would probably make his Market Last Night some Dutch Ships going for Dantzick arrived here and boasted that their Fleet of ninety Sail under De Ruyter sailed upon Sunday last the first Instant towards England and to the Chanel as they thought to join with the French but no body gives credit to the Relation You see what a shift I make to compleat my Bill of Store but pray let it not dishearten you from corresponding For if I have nothing else to say I shall be glad of Opportunities to express my self SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant Thomas Clifford From the Earl of Clarendon Lord High Chancellor Oxford December 28 1665. SIR
believe you know already from the said Marquis Now since it concerns me very much that his Majesty should know these Soldiers are kept in his Service I should be extremely satisfied if you would inform the King of it at the same time that the said Baron de Rosenback will be arrived at London And that it be represented as Mark of my eternal Devotion to his Majesty In which you will highly oblige me And in Confidence thereof I remain SIR Your most Obliged Servant Chr. Bernardus Ab Episcopo Monasterii Lugderio Maii 21. 1666. Generose Domine NON dubito officiis Dis Vrae additum in Aulâ Regis ablegato meo Baroni de Rosenback ita praeparatum ut S. Regiae Majestati ratio consilii me praebetur quod Dom. Vram ita continuaturam spero ut Rex persuasum omnino habeat istam necessitatem quae mihi pacis lages imposuit nihil prorsus detraxisse de animo quo S. Majestatis observantiae gloriae utilitati aeternùm devotus sum Eumque in finem mandavi Agenti meo Rintorf intimam meo nomine cum Dne Vrâ. Communicationem mearum rerum amicitiam colere intentus semper in occasiones omness futurus pro servitio S. Majestatis quem in finem copias Brabanticas in circulo Burgundico conscriptas Domino Marchioni de Castel Rodrigo integras remisi jam itineri in Belgium Hispanicum accinguntur legiones aliquot Germanorum fortis sanè exercitatus miles de quorum virtute ipsi foederati Belgae testari poterunt uti Dom. Vram jam ex praedicto domino gubernatore latiùs cognovisse arbitror Cum autem meâ plurimum intersit ut Regiae Majestati suae constet militem hunc in suo servitio conservari pergratum mihi foret si Di◠Vra. de eo facillitandae intentioni meae quamprimum fine morâ hoc ipso tempore quo dictus Baro de Rosenback Londinum appulerit S. Majestatem certiorem faciat tanquam indicium ratum aeternae meae in Regem fide contestetur Quo me Dio. Vra. sibi summopere obligabit Et hà c fiduciâ manes Dominationi vestrae addictissimus Chr. Bernardus From my Lord Arlington Whitehall July 30. 1666. SIR WHAT I received in yours of the 2d was written to me at large from him whom I suppose to be the Author of it but not exactly with the same Circumstances whether his Meaning or his Imagination fail him is a great Question here His Name to speak freely with you is able to discredit any Truth And against the Grain I employ'd him in Holland not to make him the Instrument of Peace but to send us News However I do not yet discourage him from writing though I wish what he saith came from any Hand rather than his Accordingly you shall do well to handle him And this is enough upon this Subject when I have so much a better to entertain you upon Here enclos'd you have the effective Truth of what I sent you the Symptoms in my last I durst not hazard any of my Acquaintance with the putting it into French because of the Sea-Terms wherewith it abounds But if you can get it well done and quickly published you will do his Majesty a good Service and may fairly put the Cost of it into your Accompts Moreover I have promis'd his Majesty to charge you with the writing of some small Paper and publishing it in French that may pleasantly and pertinently awaken the good Patriots in Holland not only to Thoughts and Wishes of Peace but to a reasonable Application for it assuring them his Majesty continues still to wish it and would gladly receive any Overtures for it from the States here in his own Kingdom not expecting less from them in this kind than they did to the Usurper Cromwell This done in any Form you like best wou'd certainly operate well in Holland and be a Work worthy of your Pen which I know has Sufficiency very much greater One thing especially it will good to mind them of the considerable Succors and Advantages they have had by the Conjunction with France which hath not been remakarbly visible in any thing more than in getting their Narratives to be believed in all the Courts of Christendom and helping them to make their Bonfires for their Successes His Majesty is going this Night to visit the Queen at Tunbridge for which he had not Leisure till now I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant Arlington POSTSCRIPT LET your Emissaries give you a particular Account of the Condition of the Dutch Fleet gotten into Zealand and of the Readiness they are in to come out again with an exact Account of their Strength if it be possible Monsieur Nypho will help to convey it speedily to us From the Earl of Clarendon Worcester-House Aug. 2d 1666. SIR I Have many Excuses to make you for not acknowledging all your Letters punctually when I received them which I suppose would give you some Trouble And I am sure all I can say to you by way of Information or Advice is constantly and abundantly supplied by the Diligence of my good Friend my Lord Arlington The last Favour I receiv'd from you was of the 23d of this Month since which time it hath pleased God to give a wonderful Improvement to our Affairs And yet I am perswaded that you there know more of the full Extent of the late great Victory than we do In all Mens View it is very great and noble and in one Respect very wonderful that almost the whole Fleet that went from hence rides now before the Enemies Harbours without being compelled to send any considerable Number of their Ships to be repaired And I believe this Success will change the Measures of most of the Councils in Christendom I wish with all my Heart it may work upon them from whom your Court must receive its Orders to move with a little more Vigor in their Resolutions the want of which will at some time or other prove fatal to that Monarchy They have it yet in their Power to secure themselves from ever receiving Prejudice from the French which I take to be the only Blessing they are to pray for in this World But it will not be always in their Power to do so I presume my good Friend Ogniate is before this time arrived there with good Satisfaction And I will not deny to you I always wished well to those Transactions the Concessions being in truth no other than what in Justice ought to be granted except we would declare to the World that whilst we have a War with Holland we will have no Peace with Flanders I wish with all my Heart that it may be punctually and religiously observed on our Part by the exemplary Punishment of those Persons who in the least Degree violate the Protection agreed upon And though there will be as you say a great Latitude for them to cover the Dutch Trade yet that cannot be long done without
Discovery and they will thereby render themselves infamous to the World and will suffer accordingly I know the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo will be as jealous in that Affair as is possible And Ogniate who was the fittest Person alive to be sent on that Errand will be vigilant to the utmost and I am confident will advertise the Marquis upon the least Discovery I know not whether he be enough known to you But trust me He is very worthy of your Friendship which is due to him from all good Englishmen having expressed the same Veneration to the King and the same Civility and Kindness to us who had the Honor at the same time to attend his Majesty when we were in Flanders as he can do now when we are at Whitehall And as that Respect of his was then of great Use and Benefit to his Majesty so it was apparently to his own Prejudice and Disadvantage So that if we are not all kind to him we deserve no more such Friends I am SIR Your Affectionate Servant Clarendon From Sir William Coventry Septemb. 21. 1667. SIR SINCE my last to you I have acquainted his Majesty and his Royal Highness with your having disposed the blank Passes sent to you and that the People of those Countries were still desirous of those Passes though there was another Provision made for their Security by the Agreement with Monsieur Ognate Whereupon his Majesty gave Consent to the sending over some more of them By this Conveyance I send you five of them More shall be sent hereafter if you continue to desire them But I thought not fit to swell this Pacquet too much The French Fleet hath been in the Channel and Prince Rupert's Fleet having been driven from their Anchors with a Storm and by other such Accidents he did not meet with them at their first coming and now we are uncertain whether they are not gone back again To morrow will tell us more of that than I can now affirm The Storm which drove Prince Rupert's Fleet from their Anchors dispers'd some of the French Fleet and seven of them on the Right fell into our white Squadron One of them a Ship called the Ruby of fifty four Guns and five hundred Men we took and some of our Frigats pursued the rest with what Success I know not as yet I am apt to believe the Body of their Fleet is gone back again towards Brest or Rochel We hear De Ruyter is dead and another Admiral chosen This Day the Parliament voted that they will supply his Majesty proportionably to his Occasions or Words to that Effect â—o our Neighbours will see our Hearts do not fail us in all our Misfortunes I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant William Coventry From the Duke of Ormond Kilkenny Octob. 14. 1666. SIR I Have more of yours to acknowledge than I have by me to take particular Notice of They were very pertinent Informations as things then went And some of them got hither with so much speed that they out-run any Intelligence I could get out of England To morrow I shall be in your Livery and perhaps try whether your Brussels Camlet will resist Irish Rain as I have known it do that of Flanders I must thank you for the Present as coming very seasonably both in respect of the time of the Year and that for ought I can yet find my Michaelmas Rent would hardly have purchased two Cloaks And that your Stuff will make me if slhall be honestly dealt with I know both from hence and out of England you are informed of all that passes here The Commissioners and their Dependents I mean Lawyers and the Train belonging to that Court have all the Business and will have all the Money and consequently if they please much of the Land contended for and to be distributed In England they are revenging upon us here the falling of their Rents but I doubt not repairing themselves They have us and perhaps the King at an Advantage The King must be supplied and England only can do it I wish we could hear of some Overtures towards Peace then would the King be freed from a Necessity of consenting to unreasonable Things or we should be the better able to bear the Interdicture of our Trade with England For to that upon the Matter the forbidding us to send our Cattle to their Markets will amount I am very really SIR Your most affectionate Servant Ormonde From Sir William Coventry Whitehall Novemb. 2. 1666. SIR I Have received the Favour you did me of the 5th S. N. and received with it the Bill of Exchange for Fifty Pounds which I doubt not will suddenly be paid I owe so many of those Advantages to your Care and Kindness that they become ordinary and do not leave me any new Expressions for my Thanks We have great Expectations what the Suedes Army at Bremen and the new Confederation against them will produce We hear the Duke of Savoy and the State of Geneva are falling out which probably will not want Partners in its Success So that the Influence of 66 will extend it self further than the Puritans Allowance for the Revelations to be fulfilled in which they confine to England We are debating still in Parliament which way to raise Money but we draw nearer a Conclusion and I believe the next Week will bring it to good Maturity I am SIR Your most affectionate humble Servant W. Coventry From the Duke of Ormond Dublin Decemb. 18. 1666. SIR YOurs of the 9 19 past found me on my Way hither where I purpose to spend the rest of the Winter How the Summer will be spent seems very doubtful Our Preparations for the War would make one think we are sure of a Peace which may be well said without any Reflection on the King and his Ministers I am once to thank you for your great Civility to my Nephew Clancarty in whose Consideration you have undertaken to endeavour a Pass Colonel Murphy and for the Disposition of the Money the Colonel was ordered if he thought fit to put into your Hand I have by this Post written to Sir John Shaw to draw it into England when he shall find it best And I am prepared to pay the Colonel here I believe you heard as soon of the Suppression as of the raising of the Scottish Commotion perhaps equal Credit would not be given in Holland to both It made me hasten hither and prepare my self to have kept Christmas in the North if the Rebellion had lasted What Discovery will be made and Justice done upon the Offenders you will receive sooner Knowledge of out of England than from hence I am very confident they had Well-wishers here which is a good or rather a bad Step to Correspondency as that is to Conjunction Those that think well of Presbyterians distinguish those Fellows and call them Remonstrators I think the true Difference is These thought they had Power to change the Government and the
always inclin'd to Some of his Acquaintance say that extream Vanity was a Cause of his Madness as well as it is an Effect All Persons of Note hereabouts are going to their Winter-Quarters at London The Burning of the City begins to be talk'd of as a Story like that of the Burning of Troy At Sheen we are like to be bare Lady Luddal seems uncertain in her Stay and we hear that when Sir James Sheen and his Lady were ready to come from Ireland great Cramps took my Lady in her Limbs And Sir James's Servants doubt whether we shall see him this Winter I desire Sir your Leave to kiss my Lady Temple's Hands and my Lady Giffard's Hands by your Letter My Daughter and I were in dispute which of us two should write this time to Brussels and because I was judged to have more Leisure it fell to me and my Lady Temple is to have the next from her I wish you Sir all good Successes in your Businesses and am Your very affectionate Servant LISLE From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Septemb. 27. 1667. SIR THIS begs your Pardon for my not writing by the last Post and presents you my humble Thanks for that Letter I should then have acknowledged and another of September 7. S. N. which with many Advices very considerable and desirable to be known gives me one particular Satisfaction to hear that one Copy of the Treaty is in so certain a Way of getting home There are two more gone by Sea one from Cales August 2d S. N. the other express by a Vessel from Rigo in Gallicia August 31 S. N. designed to set a Gentleman of my Company a-shore in Ireland on the South Part which Course I directed as a certain Way to avoid the Danger of the Sea and no very tedious Way of Passage I suppose all these likely to arrive in England much about a time This Place affords not much considerable News to return you Our Portugal Adjustment keeps the Pace of the accustomed Spanish Gravity if it proceed forward at all They have here removed the President of the Hazienda or as they call it â—â—bilar'd him giving him his Salary still of 6000 Ducats per annum for his own Life his Wife 's and his eldest Son 's and also have given him some other considerable Mercedes And have made Don Lopez de los Rios President de Hazienda in his Room This last is Castillo's near Kinsman and Creature the other a near Kinsman of the Duke of Medina's de las Torres The Conde de Fwensalida is lately dead a Grandee of Spain my chief Business here is a longing Expectation to hear of the Treaty I have made here to be received in England which now I daily shall hope for and as any thing thence or here occurs worth your Notice it shall be presented you by SIR Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Sandwich From the Earl of Sandwich Madrid Dec. 1â— 2â— 1667. SIR I Hope from your Goodness to find Pardon for missing the other Posts but dare not adventure your Patience to fail this also though I am now hurried by Business so that I have not time so largely and considerately to write as I desire Be pleased then to know that Mr. Godolphin's Journey to Portugal suffered so much Delay until it was found necessary that I must go in Person thither and then he resolved to make use of the King my Master's Leave to return into England and began his Journey for Bilboa on Tuesday Morning last You know the Value of Mr. Godolphin so well that it is needless to tell you my Griefs in parting from one of the most accomplisht worthy and generous Friends that ever I met with And I am heartily ' glad that your Friendship and mine do also Convenire in aliquo tertio My Journey for Portugal hath almost met with as many or more Calms than Mr. Godolphin's and in good earnest I am not able to give you any Light whether it be likely to proceed or not The Spaniards have reformed two Regiments of Germans at Badajos very good Officers they say and are resolved never to serve the Spaniard more The King of Spain has had the Small-Pox but is so recovered as they fear no Danger In Portugal Don Pedro is made Governour to assist his Brother in the same Nature as his Mother did when she was Regent And the Addresses are made in the same manner The Queen is returned to a Convent asserting her self to be a Maid and the King has under his Hand and Oath delivered the same So the Queen pursues the Cause among the Church-men to have the Marriage declared null There are Cortes to be called there January 1. S. N. On the 7th Instant S. N. the Marquis of Sande the Embassador that brought the Queen was shot and kill'd in the Street with a Carabine and no body knows who did it I wish you a very merry Christmas and am most affectionately SIR Your most faithful and most humble Servant Sandwich Postscript IF I go to Portugal pray continue our Correspondence to Mr. John Werden a Gentleman worthy of your Favour and very able and securely my Friend who does me the Favour to continue in my House and manages the King's Business in this Court in my Absence and will send me your Letters From Monsieur Gourville Luneburg Jan. 28. 1668. SIR BY a Copy of the Letter written from the King of England to the States I understand you are a peaceable Man And the Memorial you have given to desire Commissioners in order to examine jointly with you into the Means for a good Peace makes us believe that you desire in good earnest to give Repose to Christendom You know how I have always desired it but however it will be the more agreeable to see it done by your Hands In good earnest I am glad the King of England has made choice of you for so great and important an Affair When his Majesty knows your Merit I assure my self you will be always in the greatest Employments and I assure you that I shall always be making Wishes for your Advancement till I see you made Chancellour of England In the mean time I shall be ever SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant Gourville P. S. IF you have a Desire to make the Peace I look upon it as very far advanced The Princes here shew their Desire of it I did not think to stay in this Country above 8 or 10 Days yet here I am after four Months Pray let me know whether you think the Assembly will be at Aix and near what time that I may keep my Lodgings there and if you will tell me in Confidence the Opinion you have of the Peace I shall be obliged to you Mine is that you may make it if you please but I am not yet convinc'd whether you can hinder it if Monsieur de Wit has so much Desire to make it as many People believe
according to what I am told A Monsieur Gourville A Lunebourg 28 Jan. 1668. Monsieur PAR la copie de la Lettre que sa Majesté Britannique a êcrit aux Etats des Provinces Unies J'apprens que vous estes un hommne pacifique la memoire que vous avez presenté pour demander des Commissaires pour chercher ensemble les moyens de parvenir á une bonne Paix doit faire croire que c'est tout de bon que vous voulez donner le repos á la Chrêtienté Vous sçavez comme je l'ay toujours Souhaitté mais elle me sera autant plus agreable de la voir faite de vôtre main Tout de bon je me rejonis que sa Majesté Britanique vous ayt choisi pour une si grande et si importante affaire Quand elle conoîtra vôtre merite Je m'assure que vous aurez toûjours les plus grands emplois et je vous assure de la meilleure foy du monde que jusque á ce que je vous voye Chancelier d'Angleterre je feray toûjours des voeux pour vôtre advancement Et en attendant je ser ay toujours plus veritablement que personne du monde Votre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Gourville P. S. SI vous avez bien envie de faire la paix je la tien fort avancée les Ptinces icy temoignent la desirer Je ne croyois demeurer en ce païs icy que huit ou dix jours et m'y voila au bout de quatre mois Je vous prie de me mander si vous croyez que l'on s'assemblera á Aix et á peu prez le temps a fin que j'y fasse retenir ma chambre Et si vous voulez confidamment me mander l'opinion que vous avez de la paix je vous en seray obligé La mienne est que si vous la voulez que vous la ferez Mais je ne suis pas si convaincu que vous la puissiez empêcher si Monsieur de Wit a autant d'envie de la faire comme bien des gens le croyent selon ce que l'on m'en mande From Monsieur Gourville Luneburg Feb. 22. 1668. SIR ALL your modest Reasoning will not hinder me from believing that any other Minister the King of England could have sent to the Hague would not have finished in many Months what you have done in four Days Without Flattery 't is a thing you ought to be extreamly satisfy'd with I suspected at first that you had made this Treaty by some Concert with the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo For tho' the King my Master has so much Reason to be content to see him grant what his Majesty demanded nevertheless the bad Council of the Spaniards has put them in a Condition to receive your Work as the Safety of what remain'd to them of Flanders I never lamented my Absence from the Hague but since I knew you were there I cannot yet tell what time I shall be oblig'd to stay here Monsieur de Lionne having encharged me from the King with some Orders in this Court which I have reason to believe will accommodate my Affairs I am strongly persuaded the King my Master will hold to the Alternative Monsieur de Lionne having sent me Word that his Majesty was content with what you had done at the Hague and that if the manner of it had been a little more obliging there were nothing more to be desired These Princes mightily desire the Peace upon your Conditions the League of the Rhine is extreamly satisfied with it so that in all appearance Spain may do what they please for this time their Country shall be sav'd no thanks to them I would fain know whether you think of going to Aix I have a great mind to see this Negotiation And I should have nothing to desire if I were sure to find you there I see by this Businese here that the Peace will be made or else that there will be a great War but I rather think the former And if they will let me come no more to France 't is there at Aix I design to reside for the rest of my life I doubt not but they will let me take one turn to Paris to see if I can make my Peace but I fear they will raise insupportable Difficulties I desire you to believe me always SIR Your most humble and most obedient Servant Gourville It may be I shall see you at the Hague sooner than you think A Monsieur Gourville A Lunebourg 22d Fevr 1668. Monsieur TOute la modestie de vôtre raisonnement ne m'empêchra pas de croire que tout autre Ministre que sa Majesté Britannique eut envoyé á la Haye n'auroit pas fait en bien des mois ce que vous avez achevé en quatre jours Sans flatterie c'est une chose qui vous doit exrtremement satisfaire J'ai d'abord soubçnné que vous aviez fait ce traitté de quelque concert avec Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo Car encore que le Roy mon Maître ait tant sujet d'estre content de le voir accorder ce qu'il a demande neantmoins le mechant conseil des Espagnols les a mis en état de recevoir vôtre ouvrage comme le salut de ce qui leur restera aux Païs bas Je n'a vois point regretté mon absence de la Haye que depuis que je sçay que vous y estes Je ne sçaurois encore savoir le temps que je seray obligé de demeurer icy Monsieur de Lionne m'ayanr chargé de la part du Roy de quelques ordres en cette cour tant que j'ay lieu de croire que cela accommodera mes affaires C'est pourtant un chemin qui me peut eonduire á cette fin Je suis tres fortement persuadé que le Roy mon Maître se tiendra á l'Alternative Monsieur de Lionne m'a mandé que sa Majesté estoit contente de ce que vous aviez fait á la Haye et que si la façcon en eut esté un peu plus obligeante il n'y auroit eu rien á desirer Ces Princes icy souhaittent fort la Paix aux conditions que vous la voulez faire La Ligue du Rhin en est tres satisfaitte ainsi selon les apparences les Espagnols auront beau faire on sauvera leur pais endêpit d'eux pour cette fois icy Je voudrois bien savoir si vous croyez aller â Aix J'ay fort envie de voir cette negotiation et je n'aurois rien á desirer si je sçavois vous y trouver Je voy par cette affaire icy que la paix ce fera ou que ce sera une grande guerre mais tout me
le dernier que les Etats sont capables de faire en cette conjoncture Monsieur le Marquis ne dilayera plus un moment sa signature et l'envoy d'un pouvoir vers Paris mais si contre toute apparance il fût capable de le faire je vous supplie de lui faire voir comme il faut que-ni l'Angleterre ni les Etats ne peuvent pas assister un refusant manifesse que par consequent il sera abandoné de tous cotés qu' aussi nous nous trouverons necessités de le reduire par des moyens plus efficaces á accepter reellement en effect par la signature du traite l'alternative qu'il a deja accepté par un ecrit separé Et j'apprehende même que par les delais deja passés l'affaire ne soit reduite á un point pour ne pouvoir pas estre redressee Comme en verité nous nous trouverions bien embarassés si le Roy de France fût deja parti de Paris vers son armée avant que le projet signé ou le pouvoir y fût arrivé Je ne say pas par quelle politique son Excellence trouve bon de faire decrier sa conduite par tout le monde de perdre le pais de son gouvernement car de nous croire si mal avisés qu'elle nous pourroit engager dans une guerre contre la France lors qu'elle de son côté veut tout de bon conclure la paix c'est que je ne puis pas presupposer Et si elle juge que la France reculera ou refusera la suspension pourquoy qu'elle ne l'aye pas voulu faire paroître publiquement devant tout le monde par une prompte signature de son côté c'est ce que je ne puis pas comprendre Cependant Monsieur Colbert á Aix a fait paroître hautement la facilité voire la complaisance du Roy son Maitre par la protestation qu'il fait publiquement qu'il a ordre de signer l'alternative sans faire exception sur le preambule du pouvoir du Marquis sur le defaut de la faculté de substituer ou autres lá ou au contraire Monsieur le Baron de Bergeyck ne se trouve autorisé á rien Et je vous asseure que les avis positiss que nous en recevons font tourner la tête á un chacun Ce pourquoy je vous supplie d'autant plus de tenir la main efficacement á ce que Monsieur le Marquis acheve l'affaire sans plus de delay Car si cette derniere complaisance des Etats ne luy satisfoit pas je vous avoue que je ne songeray plus qu'aux moyens efficaces pour le reduire á la raison aux expedients par lesquels le Roy de la Grande Bretagne leurs Hauttes Puissances se puissent entendre avec la France pour prevenir les malhenrs de son voisinage En quoy j'espere que vous cooperez avec autant d'application selon l'invention de nôtre convention que je me tiens que vous tacherez par toute sorte des moyens de prevenir ce cas desesperé ruineux pour l' Espagne Et moy je demeureray á jamais avec beaucoup de passion Monsieur Votre tres humble Serviteur Johan de Witt. From Monsieur de Witt. Hague April 27 1668. SIR YOU ought to be well satisfied with your whole Conduct since the Success so well answers your good Intention and that your Work has so excellent an Agreement with the Foundations you had laid All Christendom owes You the Glory of having first disposed the King of Great Britain's Mind to so strict an Alliance between his Majesty and this State for the universal Good and Peace of Europe It is upon this Principle you have continued to labour with so much Application and so successfully with the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo that it is chiefly to You we are obliged for the good disposition he is in at present and for the enjoyment of so great an Advantage to Christendom as results from it I speak of it as a thing we possess already because I see nothing that can hinder us from it it being likely that the Baron de Bergeyck has already executed the Power we have sent him and that the Court of Madrid in order to deliver Flanders from its troublesome Guests will no longer defer to ratify the Treaty For the rest I agree extreamly with your Sentiments and am of Opinion some exchange of Places should be negotiated immediately after the signing of the Treaty I writ about it before to Monsieur Beverning so that I do not doubt but you have been entertained with it already I confess also with you that this Negotiation will be more conveniently managed afterwards at Paris than any where else at least if the Marquis of Castel-Rodrigo can resolve to have confidence enough in the King of Great Britain's Ministers and those of this State to refer to them the Negotiation of an Affair of this Nature Tho' if he considers it well he will find that we both have the same Interest in it You have nothing else but to go on your own way upon the Foundation of the Agreement of January the 23d to support the Peace made by a Guaranty of all who are interessed in it either in general or particular never fearing that those who shall negotiate jointly with you in the Name of this State will disorder the Harmony that has appeared in the whole Course of this Negotiation What they do is as well from their own Inclination as in pursuance of their Orders For me I shall ever second your Zeal with Joy and shall take all Occasions to shew with how much Passion and Sincerity I am Sir your c. A la Haye 27 Avril 1668. Monsieur VOus devez estre bien satisfait de toute vôtre conduite puisque le succez repond si parfaitement á vótre bonne intention que vótre ouvrage a un si excellent rapport aux fondemens que vous en aviez jetté Toute la Chretienté vous doit la gloire d'avoir donné la premiere disposition dans l'esprit du Roy de la Grande Bretagne á une si êtroite liaison entre sa Majesté cet Etat pour le bien le repos universel de l'Europe Sur ce principe vous avez continue de travailler avec tant d'application si heureusement auprés de Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo que c'est á vous principalement á qui l'on est obligé de la bonne disposition en laquelle il se trouve presentement de la jouissance d'un si grand avantage pour la Chrêtienté qui en resulte J'en parle comme d'une chose que nous possedons deja parceque je
ne voy rien qui nous en puisse frustrer y ayant de l'apparance que dés á present le Baron de Bergeyck aura executé le pouvoir que nous luy avous porte que la Cour de Madrid pour delivrer les Paiis bas de l'importunité de ses hôtes ne voudra pas differer de ratifier le traité 〈◊〉 Au reste je donne fort dans vos sentimens suis d'avis que l'on fasse negotier quelque exchange de places incontinent aprés la signature du traité J'en ay ecrit cy devant á Monsieur Beverning de sorte que je ne doute point que vous ne vous en soyez deja entretenu J'avoise aussi avec vous que cette negotiation se faira plus commodement dans la suite á Paris qu'ailleurs au moins si Monsieur le Marquis de Castel-Rodrigo peut resoudre á prendre assez de confiance aux Ministres du Roy de la Grande Bretagne de cet Etat pour s'en rapporter á eux de la negotiation d'une áffaire de cette nature quoyque s'il le considere bien il trouvera que nous y avons les uns les autres presque le même interêt Vous n'avez que continuer vôtre route sur le fondement de la convention du 23 Janvier pour soutenir la paix faite par une guarantie de tous les interessés en general en particulier ne point craindre que ceux qui travailleront au nom de cet Etat avec vous deconcertent cette belle harmonie que l'on a veu en toute la suite de cette negotiation Ils le feront non seulement en execution des ordres qu'ils en ont mais aussi par inclination Pour moy ce sera toujours avec joye que je seconderay vôtre zele que je rencontreray les occasions ou je vous puisse donner des preuves de la passion sincerité avec laquelle je suis Monsieur Votre tres humble Serviteur Johan de Witt. From my Lord Arlington Whitehall May 8 1668. SIR IF I had written to you last Post as I should have done if there had been time for it you would have heard me complain much of the Pain I was in not to hear from you in fifteen Days in so delicate a Conjuncture of Affairs which was occasioned by contrary Winds In the mean time we were a little eased by Sir John Trevor's Assurance to us of the Peace having been signed on the 2d S. N. which hath since been amply confirmed by two of yours brought together of the 2d and 8th S. N. So that now I can with Foundation give you the Parabien of this great Work which you may without Vanity call your own whatever Padrinoes you have had to assist you in it And with more Satisfaction considering what Escapes you made betwixt the Marquis's Irresolutions the Baron de Bergeyck's Puntillioes and Monsieur Colbert's Emportement God be thanked the great Business and You are so well delivered from these Accidents after which I hope this will find you safely arrived at Brussels and keeping your self still in the same Figure of Equipage to wear the better the Character of his Majesty's Ambassador at the Hague towards which I shall send you with all speed his final Resolution and Instructions In the mean time you will receive by the Inclosed his Mind to the Marquis recommending to his Excellence the making good with all speed to the Crown of Suede what we and the Dutch Ambassadors have promised to the Count de Dona as you will see by this inclosed Act which we gave him at the Exchange of our Treaty ingaging him in the Triple Alliance the performance of which the Dutch Ambassadors and I have already bespoken of the Count de Molina within six Weeks time when we hope the Ratification will be come from Stockholm and the said Ambassador observing already that the Count de Molina calls to the Dutch Ambassadors and Us for a Ratification he admonishes us to delay it till the Conditions be performed with him This I say is offered but not concluded by Us to be so observed His Majesty had resolved the Parliament should adjourn on Monday last but an unhappy Difference falling out betwixt the Lords and Commons upon a great Point of their Priviledges their sitting hath been spun on to this Day though not without hopes of our finally rising to Morrow Our long talked of Miscarriages have this Week been finished with a very unhappy one in the Queen after twenty Days going and raising the dejected Hopes of the whole Nation which even this Misfortune hath somewhat revived I leave it to Ambassador Patrick to entertain you upon this Subject who cannot fail of long Letters by this Post I am with all Truth and Affection SIR Your very humble Servant Arlington POSTSCRIPT YOU never sent us any Copy of the Promise of Guaranty you signed to the Marquiss though you did the Original of That he gave you in exchange of it with relation to the King our Master When the Count de Molina hath pressed me apart from the Dutch Ambassadors for his Majesty's Ratification I have told him he ought to have ready his Ratification from Madrid to exchange with ours which it will not be amiss for you to take notice of likewise to the Marquis when he shall give you occasion for it From the Elector of Mentz Mentz May 14 1668. My Lord THE Honour of a general Joy upon the Peace concluded and signed between the Crowns being equally due to the vigorous Interposition of his Majesty of Great Britain and to the wise Conduct of your Excellency in an Affair of such Importance to Christendom I desire to rejoyce with you upon the happy Success of it I hope the Ratification of this Treaty will be exchang'd in due time on both sides and shall not fail on my part of contributing all I can to the Preservation of the publick Peace and to second his Majesty's Intentions assuring your Excellency in the mean time that the Obligations will never be forgot which an infinite number of good Christians ow you for your Diligences in accomplishing the Peace And that for my particular I shall cherish all Occasions of shewing your Excellency the Sincerity of my Affection and how much I desire to let you know that I am Your Excellency's most humble and most affectionate Servant Jean Philippe De Mayence 14 May 1668. Monsieur L' Honneur d'une joye generale sur la paix conclue signée entre les Couronnes se devant êgalement á la vigoureuse interposition de sa Majesté de la Grande Bretagne á la sage maniere dont Vôtre Excellence a sceu conduire une affaire de telle importance á toute la Chrêtientié J'ay bien voulu me conjuir avec Elle de l'heureux succés
affectionné tres humble Serviteur Johan de Witt. From the Lord Keeper Bridgeman July 26th 1668. SIR I Received yours yesterday morning after you were gone hence and am afraid the Letter which I sent you from Mr. Williamson might come unseasonably to discompose you It not being so intended by me nor I believe the Message from the King to be otherwise intended than out of Kindness and Respect to you to hasten you away that you might know how important he held your Negotiations might be for his Service at this critical Time And therefore I should be glad that you would take this by the right Handle I had a Letter this Night from Sir Thomas Clifford who writes that they in the Treasury have a great Desire to accommodate you And though it be not in the Privy Seal that you shall have three Months Advance besides the 1000 l. yet they will be careful that you receive the Mony as it is due The Draught of the Instructions are sent away to my Lord Arlington and expected back on Tuesday-night and the Foreign Committee appointed to sit on Wednesday to dispatch them Really Sir I do not think that there is any Intention in pressing your Departure for Holland but just and honourable towards you and with respect to the Greatness of the Employment and the Urgency of the King's Affairs at this time to have you at the Hague And if you will take my Opinion I would not have you take other Measures of it even for your own sake In the mean time while you do stay you may press on the Business of your Account tho' I should not advise you to retard your Journy upon that score It may be as well pressed on by your Lady if she do not not accompany you or else by your Sollicitors among whom I will be one who if any Obstructions be may write to you to remove them But you will find the Vice-chamberlain dilatory and then your stay at last upon this new Business for so I may call it may beget a Misconstruction You will pardom the Freedom I take in imparting my own Thoughts to you in this Case I wish You and my Lady to whom I recommend my humble Service a happy Journy and all other Felicities as I wish to my self who am ever Your faithful and very affectionate Servant Orl. Bridgeman C.S. The End of the First Volume LETTERS Written by Sir W. Temple Bar t AND OTHER Ministers of State Both at Home and Abroad CONTAINING An ACCOUNT of the most Important Transactions that pass'd in Christendom from 1665 to 1672. In Two Volumes VOL. II. Review'd by Sir W. Temple sometime before his Death And Published by Jonathan Swift Domestick Chaplain to his Excellency the Earl of Berkeley one of the Lords Justices of Ireland LONDON Printed for J. Tonson at Gray's Inn Gate in Gray's Inn Lane A. and J. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row and R. Simpson at the Harp in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCC Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE's First Embassy AT THE HAGUE Begun August 1668. VOL. II. To the Elector of Mentz Hague Aug. 31. S. N. 1668. SIR I Did not receive the Honour of your Highness's Letter till some time after my Arrival in England with the inclosed for the King my Master which he received with that Esteem his Majesty always bears to what comes from your Highness and having promised me an Answer upon my Return for Holland which has been put off from day to day I have deferred my particular Acknowledgments to your Highness till I could value them by the Honour of accompanying a Letter from his Majesty I send it now inclosed and desire your Highness to believe that I resent as I ought the Honour you have done me and that I will preserve your Highness's Letter among the greatest Marks of Honour to my Family and shall not fail upon all Occasions to shew how much I shall cherish the Title I pretend to with so much Justice of being SIR Your Highness's c. A l'Electeur de Mayence De la Haye le 31 Aout S. N. 1668. Monsieur LA Lettre dont V. A. m'a honoré qui est datée du 14 de May ne m'a eté rendue que quelques jours aprés mon à rrivée en Angleterre avec elle j'ay recû l'envelopé pour le Roy mon Maitre que je luy ay porté qu'il a reçû avec les memes marques d'estime que sa Majesté a toujours fait paroitre pour tout ce qui vient de la part de V. A. le Roy m'ayant promis la reponse pour le tems de mon retour en Hollande qui a toujours trainé de jour en jour J'ay differer de marquer a V. A. ma reconnoissance en particulier jusqu ' á ce que j'eusse l'honneur d'etre porteur d'un Lettre de sa Majeste Je l'envoye á cette heur je supplie V. A. de croire que je ressens comme je le dois l'honneur qu'elle m'a fait que je conservera sa Lettre la conteray parmi les titres les honneurs qui elevent la glorie de ma famille Je ne laisseray echaper aucune occasion de temoigner combien je cheris cheriray toujours la qualité que prens avec tant de justice de Mr. De V. A. c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Sept. 7. S. N. 1668. My LORD SINCE my last I have not stirred out but had the Favour of several Visits in my Chamber among the rest one from Monsieur Meerman on Wednesday and one of three Hours from Monsieur de Witt yesterday I fell into Talk with the first upon the Matter of the Guinea Company who said my Lord Holles and as I remember Mr. Secretary Morris had spoken of it to him before but only given him a general Relation upon which he could not sufficiently inform the States That they had likewise mentioned some other Parts of the Marine Treaty by which the East-India Company thought themselves aggrieved but remembred nothing particular besides the Form of Passports in which we might receive what Satisfaction we pleased and the better Definition of what was meant by a Town invested I told him the Business of Guinea was distinct from any Thing of the Marine Treaty though he was unwilling to understand it so that I was very little instructed in the first because his Majesty's Commands in that Point were only to procure the Reference of it to Commissioners for the proposing Rules by which both Companies should proceed and thereby preventing the said Company 's acting wholly by Rules and Officers of their own which had been the first Occasions of the unhappy Disputes between us and might possibly prove so again For the Marine Treaty I told him I had yet no Instructions upon that Subject but might have in a little Time and thereupon took occasion of discoursing to
sparing no Man's part and holding an equal proportion with every Man's Estate Only this Circumstance should be in it to make it easy That not only every Man should have the Offer and Pre-emption of his own but if upon refusal it should be sold to another Hand yet it shall be free for the Owner to buy it of him at any Time within a certain Space as of two or three Years and the present Purchaser to be content with the Profit he shall have made in the mean Time which will prove a great Interest for his Capital Thirdly A reducing of the Interest which the King pays from Ten to Eight in the Hundred with which the Bankers may very well be contented and must be I suppose if the King pleases and finds a Course to make them see their Security cannot fail them For two in the Hundred Gain is of all Reason enough for them where the Security they receive is as good as what they give as it is in this Case For the King's Security to the Banker is in effect the Banker's Security to his private Creditors and whenever one fails the other must Now the Bankers pay but Six in the Hundred at most for In-land Mony and less for some And I have Reason to doubt a very great Trade is driven with them from Holland by Dutch Merchants who turn their Mony through their Hands encouraged by the great Interest they gain there in lieu of so small here that the States have lately refused to take the Value of Twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling of the Duke of Lunenburg's Mony at Two and a half per Cent. and Three is the utmost that any Man makes And if the King by granting good Security punctual Payments and the Reputation of good Order in his Revenue were gotten into Credit I do not see why he might not upon Occasion take up what he pleased at Six per Cent. as well as the States do here at Two and a half Fourthly To enable the King upon any Occasion to give better Security I know nothing would do so much as if the Parliament could be disposed to settle the Customs upon him for one Year after his Death as they are already for his Life but that being an uncertain Term Mony will not be readily or without Exaction of Interest lent upon that which may fail next Day And yet I conceive it to be the largest Branch of the Revenue and in all other Points the most certain Fifthly If any Thing were set on foot in Parliament towards an Act of Resumption of Grants of Crown-lands since a certain Time Use might at least be made of it towards drawing such Grantees to a voluntary Composition of holding their Grants at the Rent of a fourth or fifth part of the real Value to the Crown in Consideration of having such Grants confirmed by Act of Parliament or the King's Engagement to consent to nothing to their Prejudice after their Consent to such a Rent and Tenure Sixthly A View may be made at least of what has been gained by any Grants from his Majesty above what were really his Majesty's Intentions to grant As where the King intended to give Five hundred Pounds a Year and perhaps Seven or Eight or a Thousand Pounds is made of it And the same of Sums of Mony out of certain Benefits granted towards the raising them And what is found to be beyond the Intention of the King's Grant to be repaid Many smaller Particulars might perhaps be thought of All which with what has been mentioned will be made valuable by a good Order in the management and a stanch Hand in Grants hereafter till the King be as much before-hand as he is behind-hand now I am my Lord your c. To Mr. * Now Earl of Montague Montague Hague Jan. 2. S. N. 1669. My LORD IT is an ill Sign of the Dulness of this Place that I must have Recourse to the Complements of the Season for the Occasion of a Letter and that I can find very little to say from hence besides wishing your Lordship according to our good old Stile a merry Christmas The Spaniards have not yet had so much good Nature as to make ours here the merrier with their Two hundred thousand Crowns I doubt it has some Enchantment or other upon it and is not to be delivered but in some fatal Hour or by some charmed Knight All is here frozen up and the Bishop of Munster may march if he pleases but if he do as has been so much talkt will blow his Fingers unless he receives very great Influences from your warmer Climate For the good Pay of these States is in so much Credit among their Neighbours that I believe they will not want what Forces they shall have Occasion for besides what they have a-foot I should be very glad to hear what becomes of my Lord and Lady of Northumberland and how long they intend their Pilgrimage supposing your Lordship keeps some Correspondence with them of which I am out of the way but very much in that of being My LORD Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant To my Lord Arlington Hague Jan. 18. S. N. 1669. My LORD THE Baron d'Isola arriving here Yesterday I have this Afternoon had some Discourses with him upon the Subject of his Journey which he professes to be a Desire of advancing the Treaty of Guaranty as a Thing his Master has more Interest in than Spain it self which will be better able to subsist after the Loss of Flanders than the Empire can I find he came with Hopes of affecting much by his Eloquence and great Parts and by making others see more of their own Interests than they were willing to do And so the two Themes wherein he came provided were To make it evident that France would open the War again this Spring and within six Weeks attack either Burgundy or Luxenburg and on the other Side That the Councils of Spain as they are now composed if they saw not a solid and firm Assistance from their Neighbours would fall into the easiest way of ending that Matter by giving up Flanders upon the best Terms they could That they were as a sick Man that would not or could not help themselves and were so to be dealt with by those that were so deeply concerned in their Loss as these States in particular seem to be And that after the Disarming of the Duke of Lorrain which France had now resolved and the seizing of Burgundy which would be their next Work it would be impossible to maintain a War in what remains of Flanders when they could do it no longer by Diversion after these two Inlets into France stopt up From this we fell into the Story of the Suedish Subsidies and the Hardships put upon Spain in that Business all which I suppose your Lordship has heard a dozen Times already and are obvious enough and therefore I shall not repeat them not remembring any Thing
ella Si pareils mots n'y sont pas un des partis contractans ne peut pas les y faire entrer par une interpretation de sa façon á moins que le consentement de l'autre parti intervienne ou que de part d'autre on convienne de s'en rapporter á la decision d'un arbitre Sans conter que celuy de Concert luy même n'importe point absolument ni necessairement á la secureté de la Guarantie Car pourvû que nous l'executions selon le besoin des affaires d'Espagne il importer a peu qu'avec un tel ou un tel nombre de troupes ou que ces troupes appartiennent á une de deux Nations plutôt qu' á l'autre car si l'on doit agir de concert c'est selon les divers interêts les differentes commoditez de chacune des Parties Et meme il peut arriver que les invasions les attacques de la France seroient si redoutables qu'il sera necessaire que chacun de nous rassemble tout ce qu'il peut de forces sur pied ayant egard á l'intention de la Guarantie en general non á quelques cas particuliers specifiés dans le traité Je n'accuse pas l'Espagne d'avoir manqué de sincerité dans tout le cours de cette affaire mais d'avoir manque de promptitude franchise á accomplir ce qui leur etoit absolument necessaire pour engager la Suede dans la conservation de la Paix sur cela je diray aussi a V. E. qu'elle ne peut pas accuser la sincerité du Roy mon Maitre lors qu l'etat de vos affaires etoit le plus deploré que tous les Pais bas etoient comme an desespoir il a le premier mis la main á l'ouvrage quand les Princes les plus proches de la Couronne d'Espagne n'y vouloient pas toucher tout l'hyver dernier sa Majesté a employé á faire traiter ses Alliances á faire equiper une flote qui a paru en mer L'eté suivante il a envoyé ses Ambassadeurs á Aix la Chapelle il a cementé la Triple Alliance fait solliciter divers Princes de s'y joindre en plus grand nombre Tout cela dans la vâ—â—e d'acheminer de procurer une paix qui ne â—endoit rien á ses Etats ni á ses Peuples puisque les uns les autres etoient á couvert des ravages de la guerre Car malgré tout ce qu'il plait aux grands discoureurs d'insinuer de publier les dangers qui menacent l'Angleterre que la Politique a du prevoir ces dangers regardoient l'Empire en particulier toute la Chretienté en general de plus prés que sa Majesté ses Royaumes V. E. demande pourquoy Monsieur Marechal ayant dit qu'il n'y auroit aucune difficulté á conclure á ratifier le Concert il s'y en trouve pourtant aujourdhuy Je vous diray sur cela que les deux Ministres de Suede sur tous les points discutez entre eux nous non seulement nous ont dit mais ils persistent toujours á dire qu'ils etoient prets á entrer dans le dit Concert qu'ils avoient meme pretendu le faire avant le depart de Monsieur Marechal quelque pressé qu'il paroisse que leur pensée n'a jamais eté d'attendre á faire cette demarche que le payement des premiers subsides fixé au tems que l'echange de la Ratification seroit delivrée Ils ajoutent á cela qu'ils ne consentiront jamais que cet argent puisse passer pour le prix la recompense qu'ils s'engageroit de donner á l'Espagne en vertu de la Triple Alliance Je les ay trouvé si roids sur cet Article que j'ay desesperé il y a long tems de vaincre leur delicatesse Il reste donc pour l'Espagne á examiner á bien peser si la Guarantie de trois Puissances telles que celles qui se presentent ne vaut pas bien qu'on cede á la Suede la legere Satisfaction qu'elle demande Je voudrois que l'Espagne confiderât s'il ne seroit pas plus á propos d'attendre á nous presser sur le Concert que le terme du second payement fût echeu Si tout n'etoit entierement conclu mais en tout cas de procurer au plutôt que la Guarantie generale vous soit mise en mains Je ne doute pas veu les dispositions ou je trouve tous les Esprits que le Concert ne suivît immediatement sans que V. E. ait la peine de nous presser d'advantage En cette rencontre notre propre interêt se trouve joint á celuy du publique Je sachaite á V. E. la santé la prosperité qu'elle desire suis c. To the Spanish Ambassador Hague Aug. 14. S. N. 1669. My Lord I Received your Excellency's Letter last night as I was making my Dispatches for England in which I immediately inclosed it that the King my Master may see in what this Affair has ended For the Complaints your Excellency is pleased to make of me as having hindred instead of advancing an Agreement so much desired I shall not defend my self with Words if my Actions have not done it nor think my self obliged whatever has passed in this Affair to give account of it to any Body but the King my Master I am not the first Minister whose Services to Spain have had no Returns but of Reproach and Ingratitude which I shall not lay to Heart since our part is only to obey However I cannot but think it had been more Prudence in the Spanish Ministers to acknowledge all the King my Master has treated and done for 18 Months past in favour of that Crown than to accuse his Majesty upon every Occasion either to have done nothing or only what he found convenient to himself Since the true way of engaging a generous Mind in new Obligations is to be thankful for the old and rather encrease than lessen what a King and a Friend has done at least with so much desire of succeeding well Since your Excellency is pleased to give so wrong a Turn to what I writ with so good Intentions I will say nothing to excuse it but still repeat what I said before That to me it seems more reasonable that you should press the Suedish Ministers upon this Agreement if you think the time of the second Subsidies not yet run out Because 't is plain that the first Payment by your own Act was to be made upon the signing the Ratifications of the Guaranty without any other Condition and there being three distinct Acts from the three Parties your Excellency
sera pas jugé moins digne moins capable de servir son Maitre pour avoir si bien servi son ami Je ne puis laisser passer cette occasion sans representer á V. E. qu'il est d'une necessité indispensable d'expedier incessamment des ordres pour faire toucher aux Ministres de Suede les 200000 ecus qu'ils on t jusqu'icy attendus avec tant de patience Ils sont prets de delivrer entre les mains de l'Ambassadeur d'Espagne les Ratifications de la Guarantie conjointement avec moy les Etats Generaux Ils m'ont aussi assuré qu'ils etoient tout prets á entrer dans un Concert particulier pour fournir un secours de Forces que pour cela ils n'attendoient que de voir finir cette premiere affaire quil's etoient resolus de ne point mêler l'une avec l'autre Ils sont au reste si mal satisfaits de quelques difficultez que Monsieur l' Ambassadeur d'Espagne leur a fait sur ce premier article que je ne croy pas qu'il soit possible de les retenir deux jours icy aprés que V. E. se sera expliquée sur cette affaire que nous aurons reçû sa reponse supposé que cette reponse ne s'accorde pas á l'acte signé par le dit Ambassadeur depuis ratifie par le Roy d'Espagne c'est ásavoir de fair conter l'argent sur l'Extradition de la Guarantie Voila ce qu'ils m'ont dit depuis deux jours ce qui pourroit bien faire aller en fumee une affaire si long tems negociée menee au port á travers tant de difficultez V. E. sentira mieux que personne qu'elle se rend responsable á la Couronne d'Espagne á toute la Chretienté de la perte d'une si grande occasion qui establissoit la sureté de l'une le repos de l'autre Car c'est de vos resolutions que tout cela va dependre c'est aussi sur elles secules que les trois Confederez ainsi que tant d'autres vont rejetter les malheurs qui suivront du peu de Succés de nos negotiations Comme de le commencement je n'ay epargné ni veilles ni soins pour cette grande affaire je n'ay pas voulu manquer sur la sin á faire une derniere demarche qui est de representer a V. E. toute l'importance des conjonctures qui s'offrent encore á nous mais qui sont prêtes á nous echapper Ce sera á V. E. á en user comme il luy plaira On tirera des mesures qu'il va prendre des presages certains pour le bon ou le mauvais etat des affaires d'Espagne Je suis de V. E. c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Oct. 11. S. N. 1669. My LORD I HAVE this Day received your Lordship 's of the 21st past and having none by me from Mr. Secretary Trevor shall presume to return in an Answer to your Lordship 's that little I have to say by this Post For all at present is here at a stand in our Business of the Alliance and when it will proceed again depends wholly upon his Majesty do what I can Since last Post the Spanish Ambassador the Baron d'Isola Monsieur Marechal and Monsieur de Witt have been severally with me to know what I will propose or what I will consent to for an Expedient in this Matter The two first would fain have something from me to work upon and I entertain them with Complaints of the Spanish ill Usage towards us having proposed at London not only to indemnity us in what they projected there concerning his Majesty's engaging to the Suede but likewise a Share of his own Charge likely to arise upon a War All which ever since the Peace they have been content to forget and now would put us upon a necessity of engaging to advance the Suedish Subsidies I further represented to the Spanish Ambassador the Imprudence of their Councils in raising this Difficulty in the first Payment to the Suedes by the easyness whereof they might have possessed themselves of the Guaranty and thereby entred into Confidence with Sueden secured them from thinking of any other Measures and pursued the Finishings of our Work by any particular Concerts without Danger or Unkindness I urged all this so far that though the Spanish Ambassador persisted in affirming That the Orders from Spain to the Constable as well as to himself were positive in the Case of not paying the Mony without the particular Concert yet he at last joined with me very freely in blaming the Weakness and Unhappiness of the Spanish Councils upon these Particulars and wondring how the Marques Castel-Rodrigo could suffer the Dispatch of such Orders The next Morning the Baron d'Isola came to me and entertained me with long Discourses of what pass'd between him and the Spanish Ambassador in consequence of what I had said the Night before And the Sum of all was as I imagined to sound me whether I would be induced to enter the Concert upon the Spanish Ambassadors promising me an Indemnity from Spain for the Hundred and fifty thousand Crowns a Month insisted upon by the Suedes to be secured to them from the King Upon this Insinuation I resolved to take no Hold at all because if his Majesty should ever resolve to promise the Advance of the Hundred and fifty thousand Crowns in case of a War I thought it would be better trusting to gain his Satisfaction by negotiating in Spain to that purpose upon the Grounds given of so many Overtures by the Spanish Ministers both at London Brussels and here than by taking a Promise or Instrument here from this Ambassador as the Baron says beyond his Power and especially whose Secrecy in it we cannot much reckon upon Whereas the publishing any such Thing may have ill Consequences of Jealousy between Us and the Dutch Therefore I contented my self to tell the Baron That I was at the end of my Line and could proceed no further than I had done already That his Majesty had ordered me to give the Guaranty in Conjunction with the other Confederates upon Payment of two hundred thousand Crowns according to the Spanish Ambassador's own Act That he thought the Spaniards had no Right to press us upon the particular Concert which yet he would be ready to consider of when the Confederates thought fit and in the mean Time was very sincerely resolved to perform the Guaranty if there should be Occasion for it Monsieur Marechal press'd me something harder upon entring into a Conference with him and the Dutch Deputies which I promiss'd before my last but have excused till Monday next in the mean time to prepare Matter for it He desired to know if I had yet any Powers to promise the Hundred and fifty
already given to the Dutch Letter I resolved to go and talk with them both upon the Business and concert with them what Course to hold in the Progress of it I could not get a Time of speaking with Monsieur de Witt to day but did with Monsieur Applebome and much to the same Purpose as I had yesterday to the Spanish Ambassador but plainer and in more Confidence All I could get from him was That he would read over that first Concert to day and consider whether he could sign it That it was true Monsieur Marechal had offered to sign something like it but containing in the same Act the Security of their future Subsidies which they were to insist upon before they sign it I told him all the Difference would be that whereas they contented themselves before with Spain's Promise of one half to take it now for three Parts if the Spaniards would be persuaded to it and they had the same Security for one as for t'other which I knew they reckoned upon of not furnishing more Troops than in Proportion to the Mony they received He seemed a good deal unsatisfied that the Spanish Ambassador had received the Advice from England before the Answer was returned from the Constable For since we will make no Part of the Security for their future Subsidies I find they would very fain touch the two hundred thousand Crowns before they give the Concert which they might then sell dearer to Spain or at least make it the Price of their Satisfaction growing due by the two next Payments of the four hundred eighty thousand Crowns already due All ended between us with this Promise of acquainting me with his Resolution so soon as he had considered it and the Proposal of a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I find now the Want I always feared of Monsieur Marechal who is not to be retrieved so that we must make our best of what we have and do all we can to put him out of his Pace The Baron d'Isola came to me this Afternoon and his Business I found was to persuade me to sign Monsieur Marechal's Projects and thereby charge his Majesty with the fifteen thousand Crowns to Sueden but upon a Promise from the Constable of Spain supplying his Majesty with the Sums we should furnish upon that Engagement But I cut him off short in that and all other Expedients and told him if his Majesty were induced to sign the Concert as it was more than they had any Reason to expect from him so it was all they were to hope in this Matter and therefore I desired him to reckon upon it and take their Measures accordingly I suppose by what he said his Intentions are to go away for Brussels within a Day or two and bring us a positive Resolution of what we are to expect from thence as to the immediate Payment and their Promise to Sueden of three Parts of the future Subsidies But he will first endeavour to know Monsieur Applebome's mind who will at least be stiff in this that the Promise be made by Spain to the Confederates and not directly to Sueden Since my last the Lunenburg Envoy came to desire me that I would let his Majesty know how much his Masters esteemed themselves honoured by the Overtures his Majesty made them of entring into an Alliance of which he was the Head That thereupon they had ordered him to attend here ever since in hopes of some further Proposals towards the engaging them in it But that his Masters hearing no further from hence and finding that by the ill Posture of our Triple Alliance other Princes of Germany were seeking other Measures they had commanded him to return which he should do about three Weeks hence but first to endeavour by my Hand to give his Majesty the best Testimonies of their Affections to his Service and good Intentions towards the Ends he had so gloriously engaged in I promised him to perform the Message and employ'd the rest of my Discourse in convincing him how much more the Princes of Germany were concerned in the Defence of Flanders than his Majesty and that however if his Masters had any Expectations besides their own Interests towards engaging them they ought to be from Holland and not from Us since the most important Use of their Troops would be to awe the Bishop of Munster who might otherwise be able by the French Assistances to divert all or the greatest part of the Dutch Forces that way and thereby leave Flanders open to the French He confess'd both these Points and I promised to do him any good Offices I could towards the Dutch Ministers The Deputies of the States came this Day to me to assure me of their Desires and Resolutions to satisfie his Majesty in the Business of Surinam but that they could not yet come to a final Conclusion and therefore desired me to have Patience for a little longer time after which I might assure my self of a good End in it They pretended Monsieur de Witt 's and their chief Ministers being so much taken up at this time but upon Discourse confess'd the Zelanders Aim to have their next Ships arrive from Surinam Upon which I fell into some Heat with them and told them I would never send such a Message to his Majesty such Delays being fitter for Law-Suits than publick Negotiations At last concluded that because I would a little consider their Ministers being so much taken up at this Pinch about Levies and other Affairs agitating in the States of Holland I was content to stay six Days longer for their Resolution in this Matter upon Condition I should have it in that Time to his Majesty's Satisfaction To make short of a long Conference this they agreed to at last and I will hope may keep their Words since there was one of the Zeland Deputies among them The Task you give me in the End of your Letter is as you say a hard one for whatsoever is planted of that kind will not grow long or well but out of a good Root at home however I shall venture at it here all I can and dare undertake it shall not thrive worse in this than in other Neighbour Soils I am c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Dec. 24. S. N. 1669. My LORD THO' Monsieur Overkirk wants nothing to make him welcom every where but especially at the Hague yet I confess he was the more so to me by a Letter he brought me from your Lordship whereby I found my self to be not altogether forgotten where I desire most to be remembred and would deserve it if I could I am very sensible that the Right you say he has done me there may rather prove an ill Office than a good But however I am not the less obliged by his good meaning nor the more touched by their ill who are not content I should gain a little Esteem whilst I am content to gain nothing else and where
the obtaining of what we pretend I can add nothing to my last upon the Business of Surinam being engaged in my Endeavours of disposing those of Zeland to let it pass smooth when it comes to the States General Such Stops being easier prevented than removed while Men are so apt to persist in what they have once said In the mean Time the Pensioner of Zeland presses me to procure the Names of such as his Majesty intends to employ as Commissioners before the Orders here are consigned me according as they desired in their last Letter Wherein you may observe the Names of three Men to be inserted on purpose that his Majesty might decline them in this Commission If you please to send me the Names I suppose it may be necessary to the expediting of these Orders unless you should think of any Inconvenience in it which occurs not to me In Pursuit of the late Conferences whereof I gave you Account in my last we have agreed upon this enclosed Project to be sent the Constable as that which he may hope will be signed upon the Mony being paid and wherein I am sure there is not any Thing of the least moment changed as to what concerns his Majesty though the changing of the Form that you sent me could not be avoided because it was without Introduction or Conclusion and besides it went a Step further than the Suedish Minister was willing to do in making it an Act to the Spaniards whereas this runs only as an Instrument between themselves of which the Spanish Ministers are to have only an Authentick Copy And since the Suedes had rather have it this way I thought best to agree with them at least if the Spaniards will be contented with it But I would not be induced to engage his Majesty in point of Time though I was never press'd with more Earnestness to any Thing both by the Spaniards and by the Dutch who sent their Deputies twice to persuade me to it because they were unwilling to leave the Constable that way of escaping us And to say the Truth in my own Judgment I thought it very little material but I had no Orders to go further in it and have to the Spaniards taken upon my self the not having given his Majesty any notice of that Pretension early enough to have it included in my Powers as you will see by the inclosed Copy of the Letter I yesterday wrote the Constable in Conjunction with another from the States to press Conclusion in this Affair For particular Occurrents I refer to what goes to Mr. Cook being unwilling to charge my self with the Credit of current News which I have ever found so uncertain that a Man may be considered more for what he does not write than what he does Yet I will trouble you with two small Matters whether they deserve it or no. Monsieur de Rohan Brother to the Duke de Mombaçon having sold his Place of Grand Veneur for four hundred and odd thousand Livres came hither last Week to dispose of a hundred thousand Crowns in this Country tho' Interest is not half so high as in France and has done it Which I reflected on because I had heard formerly he was a Person as well with his Master as almost any at Court There was executed this Week at Amsterdam a Person of very good Quality and Credit among them only for having engaged the Copies of an Obligation he had from the Admiralty instead of the Original to some Persons from whom he took up Mony upon them And tho' he was Nephew to one of the Burgomasters of that Town and Brother to the Treasurer of Zealand and all the Instances that could be were made for having him condemned all his Life to a Hole where he could neither see nor stir with offer of repaying all the Mony he had taken up And afterwards a thousand Pounds would have been given to have had him executed in Prison yet he could not escape losing his Head with the common Forms in Publick to the Loss of his Creditors who were as much concerned to save him as his Friends Which I observed as a remarkable Strain of the Justice here so much different from the Style of most other Places I am Sir c. To my Lord Arlington Hague Feb. 7. S. N. 1670. My LORD SINCE my last I have received your Lordship 's of the 28th past and doubt not but before this arrives you will be fully satisfied by the late Accounts I have given of our Progress here towards the Conclusion of what had so long depended between Us and the Spanish Ministers I cannot yet say the Mony is paid but I see nothing that wants towards it only the adjusting of that Conjunction demanded by the Constable of Merchants at Antwerp For the Spanish Dealings are in so ill Credit that 't is hard to find any who will give Caution for such a Sum to the Spaniards and in their own Dominions where they can plead and judge themselves I believe the States must at last engage to the Merchants here that they will indemnify them from all that shall fall out on this Occasion though after the Arrival of the Ratifications from England and Sueden the Spaniards should make a Querelle d'Allmand with their Correspondents at Antwerp and force them to any Prejudice without any Pretence I gave Monsieur de Witt the first News of the French King's Declaration to remit the Judgments of the Differences depending on the Peace to his Majesty's and the Crown of Sueden's Arbitration He thought the leaving out the States was something discourteous on the French side but said however he was very glad of the Thing being done and hoped as the Business should receive no Hurt by any Resentment on their Side so it would receive none on our Side by any Effect of the great Cajolry of France especially since this Resolution appeared by the Time to have another Source than only the Civility or Deference of that Court towards his Majesty I doubt the Confidence in this Declaration will stop the Levies which were intended for this Spring though these Ministers are not the most believing in the French Promises and I am not very confident the Effect of this last may not be spoiled by some unreasonable Answer from Spain upon it having been confirmed in such a Suspicion by the Baron d'Isola's Opinion who told me he would write to the Marquess Castel-Rodrigo to advise that the Queen should accept this Offer of France * Provided the most Christian King would refer to the same Arbitrage all the Contraventions of the Peace whereof Spain complain'd at the Conference of Lisle Pourveu que le Roy tres-Chrêtien remettroit au méme Arbitrage toutes les Contreventions de la Paix dont l'Espagne s'estoit plaint á la Conference de Lisle Which concerns the Spoils of Burgundy and which France would never admit to give jointly in the Conference with their Pretensions about
Order and Dignity have been very peculiar as well as the Consequences of them in the general Applause and the particular Esteem of all those who have had the Honour to know and observe it Among whom there is none more desirous to express that Inclination by his Services nor that has more of it at Heart than My Lord Your Lordship 's most faithful and most humble Servant To the Great Duke of Tuscany Hague Jun. 27. S. N. 1670. SIR HAving so long taken part in whatever concerns the Person or Interests of your most Serene Highness I could not fail to condole with you for your great Loss whereof all Christendom would have been sensible to the last Degree if the Grief for such an Accident were not lessened by the Succession of a Prince who has left such Impressions of his Person and Merits where-ever he has appeared as will never be worn out 'T is true such is the Composition of Human Things that nothing is pure or without mixture so that even upon this Occasion I see some Ground to mix my Congratulation with my Condolence when I consider that your Highness has finished your Travels before the Accession of this glorious Charge Your Highness has added to your Birth and Wit all the Advantages that the Commerce of Strangers is accustomed to give and you now find occasion for the exercise of all towards the Government of your Subjects My Wishes and Applauses shall not be wanting to your Highness tho' I know your Conduct and good Fortune will give me little Occasion but for the latter as your Highness's great Qualities have already given me a great deal to be SIR Your Highness's most humble and most faithful Servant Au Grand Duc de Toscane De la Haye 27 Juin S. N. 1670. Monsieur AYant pris depuis long tems une aussi grande part dans tout ce qui touche la personne ou les interêts de V. A. Sme je ne pouvois manquer á m'affliger avec elle á l'occasion de la perte qu'elle vient de faire qui est telle que la Chretienté en seroit inconsolable si la douleur d'un evenement si triste n'etoit soulagée par l'idée du Prince qui vient remplir la succession on sçait que c'est un Prince qui a laissé de sa personne de son merite par tout ou il a paru des impressions qui ne s'effaceront jamais Il est vray que telle est la composition des choses humaines que rien n'y est pur sans melange le bien le mal ne se laissent guere gouter separement En cette rencontre donc je vois dequoy meler mes congratulations á mes condoleances je fonde les premieres sur ce que V. E. Sme avoit achevé tous ses voyages lors qu'un si glorieux fardeau luy est tombé en partage Elle a ajouté au bonheur de sa naissance á la penetration de son esprit tout ce que le commerce la comparaison de divers etrangers chez qui elle avoit sejourné a accoutumé de donner Cette riche moisson etant á peine faite tant de talens sont mis en ouvrage V. A. se voit á present obligée de les consacrer au soin du gouvernement de ses Sujets Mes voeux mes applaudissements ne manqueront jamais á V. A. quoy que sa conduite sa prosperité me repondent que je ne feray usage que de ces derniers Ses grandes qualitez avoient deja fourni beaucoup de motifs d'etre Monsieur De V. A. Sme le tres-humble tres-fidelle Serviteur To Sir William Godolphin Hague July 3. S. N. 1670. SIR I HAVE not had any Thing of late worth your Trouble nor any of yours by me to acknowledge though I should have been glad to have received from your Hand the Assurance of what comes to me more uncertainly from others of the Catholick King 's perfect Recovery and the Junto's Disposition to admit simply of his Majesty's and the King of Sueden's Arbitrage as was proposed The great Deadness of the Season in point of News would have excused you this Trouble but that the Sueaish Minister here begins to pursue me hard for my Offices towards the Spanish Court for the second Payment which he reckons to be already due by the Expiration of eight Months since the delivery of the Guaranty But Monsieur de Witt and I are both of Opinion the Spanish Ambassador's Act may very well be construed to signify eight Months from the signing of the Concert which Spain always insisted upon as an essential Part of the Guaranty And to begin the Payments only upon the signing of it which was the last of January past by which Calculation the second Payment will grow due at the End of next September But this is fitter to be argued by Spain than by us And that which is more necessary is for Them to provide so as the Mony may be ready here by that Term to recover by the Fairness and Ease of this Payment the Credit they lost in Sueden by the Difficulties of the last In the mean time if you can persuade the Spanish Court to signify to the Suedish Minister either there or here that they have been put in Mind of it by you and have it so much in their Care as to provide that it shall not fail at the end of September which They take to be the Term it grows due you will I suppose perform an Office both necessary and grateful to all the Parâ—ies interessed in that Affair The Dutch would have enjoyned it to their Minister if they had any present at Madrid â—he Want of which gives you more thaâ— your Share in these Transactions They would fain engage Monsieur Beverning to accept of that Employment whâ—ch I wish for your sake but I doubt its succeeding The Prince of Orange intends to go for England about the end of this Month and my Lord Ossory is shortly expected here to attend him in his Journy I am always SIR Your most obedient humble Servant To the Earl of Essex Hague July 7. S. N. 1670. My LORD I HAVE received by this last Post the Favour of one from your Excellency of the 18th past which gives me the Hopes of a sudden Dispatch in your present Negotiations and the very welcom News of your Intention to pass this way in your Return where I shall be very glad to find the Occasions I desire of serving your Lordship in a Place that indeed better deserves a passing Visit than any long Abode Your Excellency will have received by a former Letter my Condolements upon my Lord Northumberland's Death which indeed was very untimely for Himself his Family and his Friends But if we needed greater Examples how little Defence is to be found against that Enemy either from
Greatness or from Youth we should have received a very sufficient as well as a very sad one by an Express which brought this Morning the News of Madame's Death by particular Letters both to the States and to the Prince of Orange The French Courier being not expected till to Morrow Morning I have not yet received any Letter of it from my Lord Ambassador at Paris and therefore shall give your Lordship the Relation just as it comes in the Prince's Letter which says That on Sunday last being the 29th of June N. S. Madame having eaten very well at Dinner and continued so some Hours afterwards about four a Clock in the Afternoon called for a Glass of Succory-Water which she used to take every Day about that Hour and having drunk it off complained that it was very bitter and presently after began to find her self ill and fell into violent Fits of the Colick upon which she said That she was sure she should die and immediately sent for her Confessor and with great Resolution disposed her self to it by passing through all the Forms of that Church upon such Occasions The News of her Highness's Illness was immediately dispatch'd from St. Clou where she lay to Versailles where the Court then was and occasioned the King's coming presently to her who arrived about Eight a Clock that Night and brought his chief Phisician with him who both began to comfort her Sickness and assure her that her Colick could not easily carry away a Person of her Age. But she persisted in assuring them of her Death spoke a good while softly to the King and afterwards said aloud That she had no Regret at all to die but that her greatest Trouble was by so hard a Separation to lose his Majesty's Friendship and good Graces which he had always express'd to her She spoke to Monsieur in the same Terms about her great Willingness to die which she said was the more because she had nothing to reproach her self of in her Conduct towards him The King left her about Ten a Clock at Night his Phisician assuring him she could not die of a Colick or at least not so suddenly as she seemed to apprehend But her Illness and Pain encreasing she expired about Two a Clock in the Morning leaving great Sadness in that Court and Regret in all those who had the Honour to know her Your Excellency will easily imagine how sensibly his Majesty will be touch'd by this Affliction and therefore I am sure you will receive the same Part in it that I and all the rest of his Servants ought to do Which I shall not encrease by enlarging upon so sad a Story further than by one Particular more of the Prince's Letter That her Body being opened in the Presence of several Persons and among them my Lord Ambassador they could not find the Cause of so sudden a Death Our News from Brussels is That the Constable was to depart from thence on Saturday last leaving the Count de Monterey Governor of those Countries by the Queen Regent's Commission for the Interim until a new Governor should be sent from Spain who they give out will be Don John and that he will be there in a very little time and take upon him that Government for his Life But the Certainty of this we must expect hereafter from Spain The Danish Envoy here tells me he intends to go very shortly for Copenhaguen and that he hopes to find your Excellency there wherein I confess I differ with him I should be very glad to know whether he did me the Right of conveying a Letter I wrote to Monsieur Guldenlew in answer to one I received from him upon his last Arrival in Denmark Your Lordship will oblige me to let one of your Secretaries inform himself from one of his whether such a Letter was received without drawing it into any further Consequence I beseech your Lordship to believe me always what I am with very much Sincereness My LORD Your Excellency's most faithful most humble Servant To my Lord Berkeley Hague July 11. S. N. 1670. My LORD I Received one from your Excellency of the 11th past by which you were pleased both to oblige and to inform me Nor could any Thing happen more agreeable to me than an Occasion of acknowledging as I ought the Favour you there express both to my Friends in Ireland and to me Of which I am equally sensible I doubt not but your Lordship will find in the loose Posture of Affairs in Ireland a great Subject for your Prudence and Industry in the Application whereof I wish your Lordship all Success and Glory being incapable at this Distance to make any Reflections on Particulars either the Evils or the Redresses Only as an old Servant I may have the Liberty of putting your Lordship in mind of one Point wherein your Reputation is much concerned and upon which I doubt you do not much reflect But if you should continue this luxurious Custom of getting a lusty Boy every Year People will think that you live like a voluptuous young Man of twenty Years old and not like a staid and wise Governor of a Kingdom Nor am I very well satisfied my self whether it be a Thing that consists with the Gravity of a Privy Counsellor much less of a Lord Lieutenant But when I consider that of so good a Race we cannot have too many I am forced to leave my Censures to give your Lordship much Joy of your Irish-man We have nothing here in Discourse but the sad and surprizing News of Madame's Death of which your Lordship will have the Particulars from so many Hands that I will not repeat them nor enter into the general Reflections that are made upon it in all Places I think I am sure here without Scruple or Dispute The Constable is gone for Spain and left his Government much as he held it Nor can I judge whether it came from his natural Temper or some contracted Indispositions For his Health has been of late the Cover for it But these six or eight Months past he has been obstinate to hear nothing of Business returning all that has offered by his nearest Officers with * Why do you kill me Quiere Matarme And passing his Time with his Virginals his Dwarfs and his Graciosoes Some say his Imaginations reached so far as to raise up Spirits and Assassins when he was alone If Spain has no greater Men its pity they have so great Use of them for I am sure Non tali Auxilio nec Defensoribus istis Tempus eget He has left the Government for the interim by the Queen Regent's Order to the Count de Monterey whom he hated and I hear Count Marsyn says he will not obey a Man * Who is but just born Qui ne fait que naître because he is but twenty eight Years old But they have succeeded so ill with one * Who thought of nothing but dying Qui ne songevit
I desired and keep him safely guarded without suffering any Approach to him but by my Order until the next Assembly of the States of Holland which will be about a Month hence And this he said the Committee might do of themselves and he hoped they would upon my writing a Letter to the President especially if I would take the Pains to speak before-hand to the several Members of it And in this he promis'd me his Assistance and withal that if the Magistrates of Rotterdam would seize and guard him till the Assembly of the States of Holland he would then use all his Endeavours to dispose the said Assembly to send him over to the King though he doubted much Difficulty in it and that the Town of Rotterdam would never consent to it without an Act from his Majesty to the States that he should be remanded to their Town after he had been examined For without such an Act he said the Town of Dort had absolutely refused to send a Person within their Jurisdiction to the States themselves Upon all these Discourses I resolved as the best I could do to speak severally that Evening with all the Members of the Committee de Raedt that were in Town which I did as late as I could so as to give the least Time for the Matter 's taking vent They all agreed in the same Account of the Constitution of their Government which Monsieur de Witt had given me and assured me they would act as far in this Business as they could do if it came to them from the States General But withal agreed that they could do no more than recommend it to the Magistrates of Rotterdam upon whose Resolutions it would wholly depend While I was late in these Visits on Wednesday-night Captain Harris came to my House and told me of the Yatcht's being come to the Briell but so ill used by the Storms she had met with that she would need some Repair before she could go to Sea again which I was very sorry for considering how ill her Voyage was likely to succeed and that I had no hopes of sending her back with her intended Charge The next Morning being Thursday I sent my Letters to the President just upon his going into the Committee And within an Hour after Monsieur de Witt 's Brother who is a Member of it came to me and told me That they had written a Letter to the Magistrates of Rotterdam to the same Purpose I desired and with all the Earnestness they could and to enforce it the more upon them had appointed him and Monsieur Voorburgh another Member of the said Committee â—o go immediately thither and dispose the Magistrates all they could to the effectual Execution of what was desired I acknowledged the Care and Compliance of the Committee and because I knew all depended upon Suddenness and Secrecy and that I had been assured the Day before of Joyce's being in Town I told him that I was resolved to go my self but as privately as I could and be there as soon as they And while they were disposing the Magistrates of the Town I would endeavour to set the Fellow so as to be sure of him when the Scout should have Orders to apprehend him After this I went strait to Rotterdam and got privately into a House within three Doors of Joyce's and had not been there an hour when the Agent I employ'd to find him out had met with him in the Streets and staid with him till he saw him go home to his own House I sent immediately to my two Commissioners who I heard had arrived some time before me in Town to give them Notice of it in hopes of their being ready for me But I found they were at the Town-house where the Magistrates had been assembled ever since their Arrival and they could not be spoke with by the Person â— sent to them till about an hour after And then they told him That they had been dealing all that Time with the Magistrates who made great Difficulties in the Business and they could not yet give me Account what they would resolve but as soon as they could they would come themselves and give me notice of it After this I waited with great Spight and Impatience till about five hours after the Magistrates had been first assembled The greatest part of which Time I could not have failed of my Prize if they had sent their Officers But after seven a Clock at Night my two Commissioners came to me and told me they had never seen the Magistrates in greater Perplexity which had kept them so many hours unresolved what to do That they said It was absolutely against the Privileges of their Town to seize upon any Man without a particular Charge being ready against him That this Man they heard was a kind of mad extravagant Fellow That having long resided in their Town he could be guilty of nothing towards his Majesty unless it were of Words which People were very free of in their Country and amounted not to a Crime that was thought to deserve Imprisonment That they should have been glad to know the Words he was accused of and that if they should seize a Man without any particular Charge the Surety and Protection of their Town would be discredited upon which much of their Trade depended And that they were confident no Town in Holland would do what was desired of them That however for his Majesty's sake and at the Instance of the two Commissioners they had at last resolved he should be seized on and that I should have the examining of him if I pleased But that if I could exhibit no particular Charge against him and he did not make himself guilty by his own Confession they must release him the next Day I replied plainly this was just nothing to the Purpose and was only so much Noise without any Effect That the King's Demand was to have him sent over and that since that could not be done without the Assembly of the States of Holland my Desire was to have the Man seized upon and kept till the said Assembly or at least till I received further Orders from his Majesty And less than this was nothing at all Hereupon one of the Commissioners seeing how much I stomack't this Dealing told me the Magistrates had not absolutely said they would release him But the other reply'd That it was true they had not absolutely said it but that he must confess he found it was their Intention For my Part I thought it was best at a venture to be once seized on him if I could and try whether I could get any Thing out of him upon his first Surprize and leave the rest to further Endeavors and therefore I desired however that he might be seized They told me the Magistrates doubted he was not in Town but when I had taken off that by Evidence to the contrary they said the Magistrates did not know the Man nor any of
of such Counsels as they esteem most Just and Safe at least if we are not in Condition to think so far as Glorious Multa dies variusque Labor mutabilis Aevi Detulit in melius We have nothing new nor material in present Agitation upon this Scene The last little Commission I had was as troublesome as unsuccessful and proceeded certainly in the Manner of it from want of knowing or considering the Constitutions of this Government which makes me confident your Lordship had no Part in directing it no more than my Lord Arlington who was out of Town I wish your Lordship perfect Health and Satisfaction and that when neither of these make it necessary you may not be too much at your Country-House Tho' in all Places I shall be ever with equal Constancy and Truth My LORD Your Lordship's c. To the Duke of Buckingham Hague Aug. 21. S. N. 1670. My LORD AS your Grace will I hope meet with many new Entertainments on this Side the Water so you must I fear be content with some new Troubles For both usually happen upon all Changes I wish your Grace all that can be of the first and should not have given you any of the other but to rejoice with you upon your happy Arrival at Paris From so little and so barren a Scene as this is at present I cannot offer at informing your Grace of any Thing especially since Men expect here to receive all their material Informations from your Motions where you now are and from what shall succeed them at your Return But to leave these People in their doubtful and mystical Reflections I shall not interrupt either your Grace's Business or Leisure with any Thing but what is plain and certain for nothing is more so than that I am with equal Passion and Truth My LORD Your Grace's most obedient and most humble Servant To my Lord Falconbridge Hague Aug. 22. S. N. 1670. My LORD I WAS very glad to find by your Lordship 's of the first current that the Suddenness of your Return therein mentioned was owing to the Dispatch of your Business in Italy and to the Care of your Health and consequently that you receive from it both Honour and Satisfaction I shall esteem it a great deal of both to me if you continue so favourable Intentions as you express of taking this Place in your way where your Lordship may promise your self whatever my Services can be worth to you I expect my Lord of Essex with my Lady here every Day unless they have changed their Design since their Arrival at Hamburgh where they came about ten Days since after my Lord's having dispatch'd all his Affairs in the Danish Court Our Treaty with Spain for regulating the Affairs of the Indies came signed to London last Week from whence I doubt not it will be suddenly remitted with its Ratification All here is in great Quiet and Silence and like to continue so unless France furnish us with some new Discourse I have hitherto writ by Mr. Perwich's Conveyance but chuse to send this by Sir John Finch's who is like to be a nearer Observer of your Motions But I will not give your Lordship a long and an empty Interruption which has little else to bear it out besides the Profession of my being My LORD Your Lordship 's most faithful humble Servant To the Great Duke of Tuscany Hague Aug. 25. S. N. 1670. SIR I Received almost at the same time the Honour of two Letters from your most Serene Highness one of March the 31st with an entire Vintage of the finest Wines of Italy and the other of the 5th Instant with your Highness's Condolences upon the Death of Madame The great Delay of the Ship that brought the Wine and your Highness's great Dispatch to make a Compliment so sad and so obliging were the cause that two Letters of so different date arrived almost together For I have very much reason to commend the Diligence of Monsieur Ferroni in conveying me all your Highness's Favours I find the Wines admirable and seeming to resemble their Prince in having lost nothing of their natural Tast or Goodness by the length of their Voyage or the Extreams of Heats or of Colds And herein I am more obliged to your Highness than you imagine not only for having made me tast the Delights of so fine a Climate in so miserable a one as this but also for having by the same Means given me the Talent of a Drinker a Quality I wanted very much to acquit my self of an Ambassy in Holland I cannot tell whether your Highness by your moving Expressions upon the Deplorable Death of Madame has more discovered the Beauty of your Wit or the Greatness of your Affection to the King my Master Therefore I hope your Highness will not take it ill that I have sent his Majesty a Copy of your last Letter by which you have given such sensible Proofs of the Part you take in whatever happens to the Royal Family The States General are very much surprized at the News brought them this Day from France in an Express sent them from their Minister at Paris which assures them of the march of the French Troops towards the Frontier to the number of 30000 where they are to rendezvous at Peronne But it is not yet known whether their Design be upon Flanders or this Country or whether they project any other Measures However the Alarm is here so great that they have immediately resolved to continue six thousand Men which they were just going to disband They have also ordered the Council of State to compute what Forces and Provisions they shall judge necessary in case of a Rupture with France and have dispatched a Boat from Scheveling to England with Orders to Monsieur Van Beuninghen who is upon the Point of departing to stay till further Orders from the States For my self I know not what to judge of these Appearances I shall ever complain of any Events that are like to endanger the Quiet of Christendom to which I have for some time under the Orders of his Majesty dedicated all my Cares And without doubt if the War opens at present great Conjunctures will arise whereof perhaps there will be Reason to give your Highness Joy not for being out of the Noise of them but because great Princes only wait for great Occasions I am Sir Your Highness's c. Au Grand Duc de Toscane De la Haye le 25 Aout S. N. 1670. Monsieur J'Ay quasi reçû en meme tems les deux Lettres que V. A. Sme m'a fait l'honneur de m'ecrire l'une datée du 31 de Mars accompagnée des plus riches vendanges d'Italie je veux dire de ses vins les plus exquis l'autre du 5 du courant avec les complimens de condoleance de V. A. sur la mort de Madame Le long retardement de navire qui a apporté les vins
the Chevalier de la Fourrille who had been dispatch'd secretly from Court some Days before the breaking up of the Camp at St. Germains and with the Troops quartered near the Borders of Lorrain made a sudden March into that Country and seized upon the City of Nancy and that by so unexpected and quick an Attempt that he failed very little of surprizing the Person of the Duke and had taken the Dutchess That the Duke escaping had retired to a small but strong Place called Bidsch where he busied himself in assembling what Forces he could for his Defence That the Mareschal de Crequy being dispatch'd from Paris had met this News upon the way and returned with it to Court from whence he was dispatch'd in haste the second time to Lorrain That the French Camp near St. Germains was marched towards Peronne under the Command of Monsieur Vaubrun but that by Orders sent after them upon the way they were to be divided into two Bodies of which one was to march away to the Mareschal de Crequy in Lorrain and the other towards Sedan where they should make a stand and face any Attempts that might be designed from Flanders or this Country towards interrupting the Success of their Affairs in Lorrain Monsieur de Witt told me further That the States having considered these Advices had ordered them the Commissioners immediately to acquaint me with them And further that though the States esteemed it a Matter of so great Importance that all the Parties of the Triple Alliance ought to concern themselves in it as wholly destructive to those Ends of conserving the Spanish Dominions which were mutually proposed in the said Alliance yet they the States should not nor indeed could not proceed to any Resolutions thereupon without first knowing those of his Majesty and being assured of his vigorous Conjunction And hereupon they desired me to give his Majesty Notice immediately by an Express to the End that I might know his Sense and Intentions upon this Conjuncture or at least be instructed to confer with the States upon it After this much was enlarged by Monsieur de Witt and the Commissioners concerning the very great Importance of the Seizure of Lorrain as the cutting off Burgundy wholly from the rest of the Spanish Dominions as well as all further Communication between any of the Netherlands and many of the Princes of Germany with the Suitzers So as they compared Lorrain to a Cittadel in a Town from which all the rest would be commanded at pleasure They added That the Dutchy of Luxemburg would be in a manner block'd up and maimed in their mutual Assistance with the rest of the Spanish Provinces That the Electors of Mentz and Tryers would have the French Feet upon their Throats And consequently that whenever France should begin with Flanders after the Possession of Lorrain the County of Burgundy would be their own in an Hour and Flanders in a very short Time without greater and readier Assistances than there seemed to be any reasonable Hopes for After this they told me They had received likewise a new Account by this Post of all the French Preparations at Sea and the present Estate of their own Fleet of which they gave me this inclosed List And by all I can gather from their Discourses I judge they are capable of any vigorous Resolution that his Majesty should think fit to inspire them in Conjunction with us But that without it they are resolved as they express it * To leave it to God and to see the French at their doors without stirring a-foot De laisser agir au bon Dieu de voir la France á leurs Portes sans se remuer Upon all which they pretend that the Disposal and Ballance at this Time of all Affairs in these Parts of Christendom lie before his Majesty from whom both the Empire and Spain as well as Sueden and this State will receive their Measures Three Days since the Baron d'Isola was with me to communicate a Letter he had newly received from the Emperor declaring his Resolution to join with the Triple Alliance in the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix which he desired me to give his Majesty part of by the Post But having told me at the same time that he resolved to give your Lordship the same Account I omit to trouble you with any further Particulars He came to me again just upon the Close of what I have written and shewed me a Letter from Monsieur Louvigni at Brussels containing the Particulars of what has hapned in Lorrain and little different from those I had before received by Monsieur de Witt only that the Duke of Lorrain resolved to retire with all his Forces into the Mountains and hopes to defend himself some time provided he might be sure of not being abandoned I am ever my Lord your c. To my Lord Keeper Hague Sept. .... S. N. 1670. My LORD I Lately gave my Lord Arlington the Account which was given me by the States Commissioners of the Seizure of Lorrain with their Reflections upon it and the Consequences it must needs have upon all the Affairs of Christendom and their Desires of my communicating all from them with Speed and Care to his Majesty which I did I have since received by last Post and by a Letter from his Lordship the King's Orders for my immediate Repair into England and for my acquainting the States with it and that it is only with Intentions of my informing his Majesty better in the several Points that concern the present Conjunctures of my Station here This I have done in a Conference upon it with Monsieur de Witt. I found him at first very pensive upon the News of it and apt to reflect upon this hapning so soon and unexpectedly after the late Seizure of Lorrain and both after the many Delays and Difficulties raised by us as he apprehends in admitting the Emperor to the Guaranty of the Peace of Aix in conjuction with the Triple Alliance which we formerly so much desired He remembred at the same time the many Instances we have made for many Months past about such a Trifle as the carrying off our Planters from Surinam whom he takes by the Articles to become their Subjects and the invincible Difficulties in which we have engaged Matters between our East-India Companies in which he says he is assured our Merchants have no Part but as they are instigated by some Persons at Court whose ill Intentions he fears towards the late Alliances contracted between his Majesty and these States both for our own mutual Safety and that of all Christendom He reflected upon a Coldness in all our Negotiations of that kind ever since Madame's Journy into England and upon the late Journy of the Duke of Buckingham's to Paris which he could not think was * To see the Country or learn the Language Pour voir le Pais ou apprendre la langue And desired I would
you some Passages of Fact upon which I ground the Judgment I make of Affairs wherein I have no Part and which I am not so sollicitous to draw into the Light as I doubt others are to keep them in the Dark And when I have told you these I shall leave you to judge whether I take my Measures right as to my own private Conduct You know first the Part I had in all our Alliances with Holland how far my own personal Credit was engaged upon them to Monsieur de Witt and the Resolutions I not only acquainted Him and You with but his Majesty too that I would never have any Part in breaking them whatever should happen Tho' that I confess could hardly enter into any Bodies Head that understood the Interests of Christendom as well as our own I have given you some Intimations how cold I have observed our Temper at Court in those Matters for this last Year and how different it was thought abroad from that Warmth with which we engaged in them So as it was a common Saying at the Hague Qu'il faut avouer qu'il y a eu neuf mois du plus grand Ministere du monde en Angleterre For they would hardly allow a longer Term to the Vigour of that Council which made the Triple Alliance and the Peace of Aix and sent me over into Holland this last Ambassy to pursue the great Ends of them and draw the Emperor and Princes of the Empire into the common Guaranty of the Peace Instead of this our Pretensions upon the Business of Surinam and the East-India Companies have grown high and been managed with Sharpness between Us and the States and grounded as Monsieur de Witt conceives more upon a Design of shewing them our ill Humour than our Reason I was sensible that my Conduct in all these Matters had fallen short for many Months past of the Approbation at Court it used to receive and that Mr. Worden was sent over to me only to disparage it or espy the Faults of it tho' I think he returned with the Opinion that the Business would not bear it 'T is true both my Lord Arlington and Sir John Trevor continued to the last of my stay in Holland to assure me that the King still remained firm in his Measures with the States But yet I found the Business of admitting the Emperor into the Guaranty went downright lame And that my Lord Keeper was in a manner out of the Foreign Councils for so he writ to me himself and gave me notice at the same time that my Lord Arlington was not at all the same to me that he had been Which I took for an ill Sign in our publick Business and an ill Circumstance in my own and the more because I was sure not to have deserved it and found nothing of it in his own Letters but only that they came seldom and run more upon indifferent Things than they used to do Ever since Madame's Journy into England the Dutch had grown jealous of something between Us and France and were not like to be cured by these Particulars I have mentioned But upon the Invasion and Seizure of Lorrain by France and my being sent for over so suddenly after it Monsieur de Witt himself could keep his Countenance no longer though he be neither suspicious in his Nature nor thought it the best Course to discover any such Disposition upon this Occasion how much soever he had of it But yet he told me at my coming away that he should make a Judgment of us by the suddenness of my return which the King had ordered me to assure him of When I came to Town I went immediately to my Lord Arlington according to my Custom And whereas upon my several Journies over in the late Conjunctures he had ever quitted all Company to receive me and did it always with open Arms and in the kindest manner that could be he made me this last time stay an hour and half in an outward Room before he came to me while he was in private with my Lord Ashly He received me with a Coldness that I confess surprized me and after a quarter of an hours Talk of my Journy and his Friends at the Hague instead of telling me the Occasion of my being sent for over or any thing else material he called in Tatá that was in the next Room and after that my Lord Croâ—ts who came upon a common Visit and in that Company the rest of mine pass'd till I found he had nothing more to say to me and so went away The next Morning I went however to him again desiring to be brought by him to kiss the King's Hand as I had used upon my former Journies He thought fit to bring me to his Majesty as he was walking in the Mall who stopt to give me his Hand and ask me half a dozen Questions about my Journy and about the Prince of Orange and so walk'd on Since which Time neither the King nor my Lord Arlington have ever said three Words to me about any thing of Business though I have been as often in their way as agreed with such an ill Courtier as I am or a Man without Business as I found my self to be I have seen my Lord Keeper and Mr. Secretary Trevor And find the first uneasy and apprehensive of our present Councils the last sufficient and confident that no Endeavors can break the Measures between Us and Holland because they are esteemed so necessary abroad and so rational at home But I find them both but barely in the Skirts of Business and only in Right of their Posts And that in the Secret of it the Duke of Buckingham my Lord Arlington my Lord Ashly and Sir Thomas Clifford at present compose the Ministry This I tell you in short as the Constitution of our Affairs here at this Time and which I believe you may reckon upon You know how different Sir Thomas Clifford and I have always been since our first Acquaintance in our Scheams of Government and many other Matters especially concerning our Alliance with Holland And that has been the Reason I suppose of very little Commerce between us further than common Civility in our frequent Encounters at my Lord Arlington's for several Years past This made me a little surprized at his receiving me upon my first coming over and treating me since with a most wonderful Graciousness till t'other day which I suppose has ended that Style Upon the first Visit he made me after many Civilities he told me he must needs have two hours Talk with me at some Time of Leisure and in private upon our Affairs in Holland And still repeated this almost every time he saw me Till one Day last Week when we appointed the Hour and met in his Closet He began with great Compliments to me about my Services to the King in my Employments abroad went on with the Necessity of preserving our Measures with
Holland and the mutual Interest both Nations had in it And concluded with wondâ—ing why the States should have shewed â—o much Difficulty upon those two Affairs of Surinam and the East-India Company wherein our Demands seemed so reasonable And how it came about that I had failed in compassing his Majesty's Satisfaction in those two Matters after having succeeded so much in all my other Negotiations I thought he might not have understood the Detail of those two Affairs and so deduced it to him with the Dutch Reasons which I confess seemed to me in many Points but too well grounded He seemed unsatisfied with them all and told me I must undertake that Matter again and bring it to a Period and asked me whether I did not think I could bring them to Reason I said plainly I believed I never could to what we called so and therefore was very unwilling to undertake it That I had spent all my Shot in vain and therefore thought their best way would be to employ some Person in it that had more Wit or Ability than I. Upon this he grew a little moved and replied That for my Wit and Ability they all knew I had enough and all the Question was whether I was willing to employ them upon this Occasion which so much concerned the King's Service and the Honour of the Nation Hereupon I told him how I had used my utmost Endeavours in it already how many Representations I had made the States how many Conferences I had had with their Commissioners how long and particular Accounts I had given them hitherto and how I had valued all the Reasons transmitted me from hence and how all to no purpose And being I confess a little heated after so long and unpleasant a Conversation as well as he I ask'd him in the Name of God what he thought a Man could do more Upon this in a great Rage he answered me Yes he would tell me what a Man might do more and what I ought to do more which was to let the King and all the World know how basely and unworthily the States had used him and to declare publickly how their Ministers were a Company of Rogues and Rascals and not fit for his Majesty or any other Prince to have any thing to do with And this was a Part that no Body could do so well as I. My Answer was very calm That I was not a Man fit to make Declarations That whenever I did upon any Occasion I should speak of all Men what I thought of them and so I should do of the States and the Ministers I had dealt with there which was all I could say of this Business And so our Conversation ended Upon all these Passages and some others not fit for a Letter I have fixed my Judgment of the Affairs and Counsels at present in Design or Deliberation here I apprehend Weather coming that I shall have no mind to be abroad in and therefore resolved to get a warm House over my Head as soon as I could And neither apprehend any Uneasiness of Mind or Fortune in the private Life I propose to my self unless some publick Revolutions should draw both upon me which cannot touch me alone and must be born like a common Calamity I cannot find them willing yet to end my Ambassy in Form or give me leave to send over for my Wife and Family which I easily apprehend the Reason of and must go through as well as I can tho' my Expence at the Hague be great and my Hopes little here of getting my Pay as I find Affairs go and Dispositions too in the Treasury where all is disposed in a manner by Sir Thomas Clifford In the mean time I have sent over for my Spanish Horse and intend to send a Groom away with him to Dublin in hopes you will be pleased with him I can be so with nothing more than the Occasions of expressing always that Duty wherewith I am Sir your c. To Monsieur de Witt. Sheen July 25. 1671. SIR BY yours of the 14th Instant I received the Marks you were pleased to give me of your Friendship and Memory which I value as I ought and as coming from a Person who has already acquired the Esteem of all the World and by that the Right of doing much Honour to others to whom he gives any Testimony of his own I can pretend to no other Part in it than what your Goodness gives me and am afraid that this may do Injury to your Judgment But knowing that your Opinion of me is solely founded upon your knowledge or my good Intentions I shall defend my self no longer because in this Age there is so little Honour in being a good Man that none are suspected to employ their Vanity about it any more than their Pursuits I should quit my Residence at the Hague with much Regret if I were of your Opinion in what regards me for I think I should be wholly useless there and find I am better turned for making a good Gard'ner than an able Minister However I shall ever bear much Respect and Esteem to those who are well qualified for the latter and therefore cannot fail of both for your Person in particular any more than of my Acknowledgments for your Civilities to me at the Hague whereof I shall ever preserve the Remembrance as well as the Passion wherewith I am SIR Your c. A Monsieur de Witt. De Sheen le 25 Juil 1671. Monsieur J'Ay reçû dans votre lettre du 14 de ce mois les marques que vous avez bien voulu me donner de votre souvenir de votre amitié je les estime ce qu'elles valent comme venant d'une personne qui s'est deja acquis l'estime de tout le monde par la le droit de faire beaucoup d'honneur en donnant des marques de la sienne Je n'y sçaurois pretendre d'autre part que celle que votre generosité m'y donne je crains même que cela ne fasse quelque tort á votre jugement Mais sachant que le bonne opinion que vous temoignez avoir de moy n'est fondee que sur la connoissance de mes bonnes intentions je ne veux plus me defendre car au reste dans un siecle comme le nôtre il y a trop peu de gloire á etre homme de bien pour s'attirer le soupçon d'avoir tourné se veues á ce coté lá borné sa vanité á si peu de chose Je quitterois avec beaucoup de regret le sejour de la Haye si j'avois de moy même l'opinion que vous voulez que j'en aye mon sentiment est que j'y serois tout-á fait inutile je me sens beaucoup plus propre á pratiquer l'art d'un bon jardinier que celuy d'habile Ministre J'auray pourtant toujours l'estime le respect qui sont dûs á eux qui savent bien ce dernier par lá je croy dire assez clairement que je n'en manqueray jamais pour vôtre personne en particulier Je say de plus quelle reconnoissance je dois á toutes les civilitez que j'ay receues de vous pendant mon sejour á la Haye mon coeur en conservera eternellement le souvenir ainsi que la passion avec laquelle je suis Monsieur Votre c. To Sir John Temple London Sept. 14. 1671. SIR I AM sure you will be pleased with knowing that my Wife and Family are safe arrived from Holland after a Passage that might very well have met with other Dangers besides those of Wind and Weather I could not obtain Leave to send for them till July though I had for some Months sollicited both That and the ending of my Ambassy But then his Majesty was pleased to grant me both that Liberty and also of writing to the States and to Monsieur de Witt to take my Leave of Them and end my Ambassy as upon my own Desire and my own private Occasions which were indeed enough to engage me in that Pursuit considering the Charge of maintaining an Ambassador's Family at the Hague while my Payments from the Exchequer went so heavy and so lame 'T is true I had other Reasons long about me which I kept to my self For soon after my coming over my Wife writ me Word That Monsieur Gioe the Danish Envoy there had told her in Confidence and out of Kindness to me that Monsieur Pompone the French Ambassador at the Hague had acquainted him That new Measures were taken between our Court and that of France among which one was that I should be recalled and return no more At the same time Monsieur de Witt had upon the Delays of my Return told my Secretary Mr. Blaithwait that he should take my stay or coming back for certain Signs of what the King's Intentions were towards the preserving or changing the Measures he had taken with the States And had desired him to let the Court know what he said This I suppose made them unwilling to make a Declaration by my recalling of what they intended upon this Occasion before all Things necessary were more fully agreed or better concerted Therefore they continued not only my Family there for so many Months and the Talk of my Return but entertained the Dutch Ministers here with such Language as gained in them an Opinion of our Measures still continuing firm upon the same Bottom and with such a Credulity as was enough to make one doubt whether they were willing to deceive their Masters or to be deceived themselves